Year: xxxx
He remembers going to his first real home.
The heat rose, so hot it's cold, the blue flames danced all around. Its body flickered, jumped, and hit Ferret's body every chance it had. Red marks decorated the boy's fair skin, his long face twisted into pain. His first time in the nine torture chambers of Hell.
"Ferret!" The devil called him. It saw the boy falling, like all first timers, into the fire's illusion.
Distorted voices clawed the boy inside out. "No… no. Stop!" The boy cried. Shadowy figures moving to the beat of the flames. They grabbed, dragged, tainted him with dark smudges. He tried to clean it off, his neat hands turned black, but he kept getting dirtier. "Why! Why!"
"Boy!" This time it grabbed the child by the collar of his new shirt and sent him flying to the ground.
Red sand dusted off into the air by the sweep of Ferret's rolling body. His head clashed with the jagged rock protruded from the ground. Covered in sand and ashes, blood seeped from his head like the deep gashes he created all over his body. At least he stopped rolling.
"Get up, little Ferret." The devil knocked his jeweled cane against the boy legs.
The boy bit back his pain and struggled to get up. He was not worthless, so do not throw him away yet. It took him three tries to get up. The devil already moved ahead, and the boy ran to catch up. They walked and walked, until it stopped.
Ferret bumped into its legs making the demon grimace. Its white pants stained by blood. It snapped its finger and the ugly stains of blood on the both of them disappeared. Ferret marveled at his magically dressed wound before—
SMACK
"Pay attention boy! You see that tree on top?" It pointed its cane at the tall hill from afar. A silver tree resting on top. "I want you to touch it."
Ferret was a dumb kid, but he knew no matter whatever he does he would take the brunt of it, so he did not think. He just walked. When a gust of evil intent slapped him in the face, he walked.
When the current of wind blew harder, he marched forward. When an invisible force pushed him away, he pushed back even harder. When the pressure became unbearable, he screamed. He moved forward, but in reality, it had only been ten steps since he first moved to the hill.
The devil laughed at the ridiculous sight. "Welcome to the second circle of Hell, my boy!" The devil named Satan strolled away from Ferret to only God-knows-where. "We'll meet again."
Of course, he's right. They'll meet again centuries later, when men tainted the sea with even more blood than before and they finally connect from the four corners of the world.
—Present—
"Hey, you!" Diana slaps the sleeping idiot's head. "Why haven't you waken up yet! Even the teacher already left!"
"Mmhmmm," X hums in acknowledgement that he is awake.
Diana rolls her eyes before leaving. She only stayed by his side because he defended her, but since he is awake, she might as well leave.
When the door slams close, X gets up and leave for the next class. His body sore, as if he did that torturous training in Hell all over again. Did the story plot move without him knowing it? Is that why he remembered such a horrible memory?
"…combat 202," A soft voice speaks beside him.
"Wha…huh?" He looks down at his little pet holding his hand.
"Are you okay, you're sweating?" Her thick eyebrows scrunch up in worry.
He wipes the sweat with his free hand and takes a breath of fresh air. They had move into the courtyard. "Yeah. I'm fine. What did you say?"
"You have combat 202 next."
Indeed, he did, and what a fun class it will be. Not!
"Line up, you Pansies!" A buff woman shouts at the pathetic group of students in front of her.
They were unorganized and unfit in her eyes.
The groups of students scattered all over the combat field scrambled into position. They were out of sync, accidently bumping into each other, and almost getting into fights with each other. Guess they didn't teach teamwork in combat 101.
At the very end of the line, X stand chilling by his lonesome self. Silently watching Dahlia, who is resting against one of the courtyard walls.
"Hey partner!" The novel's token Asia— I mean Lance runs over, sporting a black eye from the previous event, and a giant redhead following him. X looks away still pissed off at the guy, who nearly got him killed.
Lance looks at him in confusion, until his eyes widen from something. "Hey, you mad that I drag you into that situation. The past is the past, forgive and forget. I promise in that bag is something that will make your frown turn upside down."
X eyes looks at him with narrow eyes, until he felt the grinning bastard was telling the truth. "It better be good!" X huffs.
"Bro, I promise. Boy scouts honor, after classes, I'll bring the good stuff and we'll have a jolly good ole time."
Someone coughs, interrupting the two idiot's bromance. The giant fella moves forward in his scarlet uniform, his green eyes judging him... maybe... a little too long for his liking.
X clears his throat. "Excuse me, Mr. Pervert." X leans away in disgust. "I suggest you keep your eyes up here." Why are humans always so thirsty? He's not even interested in these—these sack of flesh!
The guy looks at X in confusion, "Mr. Pervert?"
Lance stifles a laugh from his best friend's weird face. "Hey! Let's calm down and let me do all the talking. Okay."
"Do you even the know the guy's name?" The shaved-head-jock had a point.
"The name is X," X pulls out his hand from his pocket toward the muscular dude.
He grabs his hand— unintentionally rough— and says with a shallow smile, "Ken."
X already knows, Ken Marian, the story's protagonist.