Chapter 1: Alex

Chapter 1 - AlexAn elderly woman in a wrinkled grey blouse and long brown skirt walked up to the counter where a teenage boy could be seen checking the register; a gentle smile appeared on her face while staring at the young man.

"Little Alex, your shift was over a while ago. You should go home soon; overworking yourself won't allow this old lady to be at ease," the old lady said to the youth with a warm tone.

The teenager slowly looked up from the register and smiled at the old lady before replying.

" It's fine, Granny. I'm waiting for the other person to come take over before leaving, he'll be here soon." The youth, Alex, replied in an equally friendly tone before returning to what he was doing.

The old lady shook her head before moving to the other side of the counter.

.....

Ring!!

The bell that was fixed above the door of the store rang, signifying that someone had either entered or exited the store.

" See you tomorrow, Granny; take care of yourself!" Alex called out from the entrance of the store where he worked part-time while waving at the old lady in a grey blouse who was the owner of the store.

Ring!!

The bell rang again as Alex left the door to close and began to walk home. He was carrying a small plastic bag with some fruits in it, and on his other hand was a copy of the latest released season of the manga: lucky reincarnation.



Alex hummed happily to himself as he walked home, a happy-go smile plastered on his face. He was a young man with exquisite features and a height of 1.59 meters, spiky red hair, and striking azure eyes. He could easily become a model and idol if given the chance.

"Oh, Alex. Done with today's shift?"

"Yes Mrs Green, see you tomorrow"

"Alright, take care of yourself, and remember to say hi to your mom for me"

"I'll do that,"

" Alex boy. Going home now? Thanks for helping me look after my child while I went off, do come by sometime."

"Sure will Mrs. Harry"

"See you tomorrow Alex, do come early and help me with carrying a few things first"

"Sure. I'll come on time, Mr Rick"

Alex exchanged kind words with a lot of people before finally getting off the street and taking a turn into another street; it could be seen that Alex's relationship with those around where he worked was really good, and they all liked him.

'I wonder what I should do for the rest of the day; I almost forgot that I have to pick up Lucas from school', Alex rubbed his face while thinking. Lucas was Alex's little brother who was in junior high school; his school wasn't that far from the shop district and, luckily, on the way to their home.

Alex walked for another five minutes before finally reaching the school area. He could see the building of the school at a distance and a lot of students in blue uniforms pouring out through the gate.

"Hmm, looks like I arrived a little late. Where could that brat be?" Alex sighed as he prepared to ask some students if they had seen Lucas but before he could approach the first set of students closest to his position, Alex heard the sounds of voices coming from an alley to his left. The voices were a mix of screaming and cursing, which, for some reason, made Alex feel slightly suffocated.

"Are they fighting? So close to a school?" Alex muttered to himself with a look of contempt on his face before deciding to walk over and stop the students.

Although he was approaching adulthood, he considered himself as one. Therefore, he had the responsibility of preventing fights between students.

Alex walked into the alley and finally found the source of the voices. But his expression changed after seeing the people who were fighting. His eyes trembled, the manga copy and plastic bag in his hands fell to the ground as he subconsciously released his grip on them.

"L-Lucas?" Alex managed to call out the name, his voice cracking from strong emotions that were boiling inside of him and were about to explode.

In front of Alex were three people, two of which he did not know, but they were probably the same age as himself, while on the floor was the third person, who was only a fourteen-year-old boy with red hair similar to Alex's.

This boy was Lucas, Alex's younger brother. He was currently in a very miserable state, with blood covering the ground around him as he curled up on the ground while the other two boys stepped on him.

When Alex muttered his brother's name, his voice attracted the attention of the three and they all raised their heads to look at him.

Alex's eyes immediately turned bloodshot when he saw the pained look on his brother's face, the bruises on his face as well as the blood running down his torn lips.

Lucas opened his mouth and mouthed an inaudible "brother, help me" to Alex.

The fearful look on Lucas's face made Alex almost go crazy on the spot.

"Hey, isn't that this brat's brother?" One of the two boys who had reduced Lucas to this state asked with a smirk on his face while gazing at Alex.



" Yeah, I know him. He must have been the one who told this brat to stand up to his bullies, how dare he talk back at our little sister because she was bullying him? He made her cry just because she poured toilet water on him?" One of the boys laughed and kicked Lucas again which brought a pained groan out of Lucas.

" What?!* Alex voiced out as all the angry expressions on his face vanished immediately after hearing the words of the boy, his face became scarily expressionless with his eyes wide open.

He remembered Lucas asking him for help against his bullies and he had told his little brother to tell the bully off. So the bully was the sister of these two, and they had beaten his brother to such a condition just because their sister cried after Lucas confronted her?

Looking at the deadpan expression on Alex's face, the two boys thought that he had been stricken by fear and they could easily intimidate him.

"Listen here, punk, you'll have to compensate our sister in the place of this brat, or else we will beat him up every day," One of the boys laughed and turned to kick Lucas once more.

"Argh" Lucas screamed and curled his body as hard as he could.

The boy turned to look at Alex but suddenly saw that Alex was already running toward him with a murderous look on his face.

"What the?!" The two boys had not expected Alex to suddenly attack without saying a word, they were unable to react.

BAM!!!

Alex's fist slammed heavily into the face of the boy who just kicked Lucas, breaking his nose instantly and sending him flying back while drawing an arch of blood in the air.

"Ahhhh" The boy screamed in pain before crashing into a dumpster in the alley and passing out instantly.

"You!!" The other boy shouted at Alex and attacked him; he sent a fist at Alex's cheek, which landed fiercely.

Bang!!

The punch smashed into Alex's face, forcefully throwing his neck to the side and causing Alex to spit out saliva; his cheek tore up from the inside as a stinging pain washed through that part of his face and a sour-sweet taste burst out.

It was blood!

The boy didn't stop and continued to rain punches on Alex. Alex didn't let the pain from his cheek cloud his mind, he raised both hands and protected his body with his arms.

After finding an opportunity, he grabbed hold of the boy who just punched him and attacked with a fierce knee strike which smashed into the boy's stomach and forced him to bend over.

Alex did not wait for him to stand up before kicking him away, the boy landed heavily on the ground and rolled for a few meters before coming to a stop.

He groaned in pain as he stood up; the boy shot a glare at the devil-like Alex, who was marching toward him.

"You're crazy!" The boy cursed, and he immediately turned around and fled after saying that.

"Come back here, you bastard; I'm going to kill you!" Alex roared and chased after the boy like a madman.

"Leave me alone! Someone help!" The boy screamed while running toward the exit of the alley. He was frightened by Alex's ferociousness and did not dare to face him alone after his brother refused to get up.

"I said stop!!" Alex screamed back as he picked up speed, he was slowly catching up to the boy.

He finally caught up to him just before the boy could leave the alley and jumped at him.



BAM!!

Alex collided with the back of the boy, and both of them went tumbling forward without restraint; they realized that they had arrived in the middle of the road when they finally stopped tumbling.

Many people immediately turned toward them, after all, they had suddenly flown out from an alley into the middle of the busy road.

But Alex wasn't thinking of any of these at the moment, the image of Lucas kept flashing in his mind and filled him with rage.

Alex got up with a bit of effort and walked over to the other boy, he was about to throw another punch when suddenly.

Honk!!

The loud horn of a truck rang from behind them. Both of them looked back simultaneously and saw a mini white truck speeding in their direction without any sign of slowing down.

Alex and the boy looked at the approaching mini truck with horrified eyes, they knew that they would not be able to make it out of the way before the truck reached them.

For the last few seconds, Alex


got back his rationality upon realizing the situation that he was in and only one word came to his mind.

"Fuck!"

Crash!!!