Aaron walked out of the SLAVAL with a smile on his face. He was a recordbreaker, from what he knew. He was four years old, and was going to be able to fight against people four times his age. It was going to be fun.
Now, he needed an appropriate outfit for the occasion, and he had something in mind. Luckily, there were shops where you could buy strange clothing for duels, and there was one specific shop called 'Ranger-Wear'. It specified in people who used Ranged-Type Ki.
Even though there were different Ki Elements, each of them had their own branches. There were only two, however. Ranged Ki Types, and Melee Ki Types. Each of them had vastly different abilities, due to either having range, or the lack of range. Aaron appeared to be specifically a ranged user, but that was because of the nature of Mana and his Boundless Abilities.
Aaron saw this shop purely on coincidence as he was walking down towards their car.
"Mother! Father! I have found a shop that could supply me with something that could benefit me in starting school tomorrow!" Aaron said to his parents, who looked at him, confused.
"Why are you calling us 'Mother' and 'Father'? Why not just call us Mum and Dad, like you did before?" Elise asked, wondering about the reason in the sudden change in vocabulary.
"I...don't know. It just feels more...respectful to you. I'm not sure how to put it any other way." Aaron said, confused as to the reason why he called them that.
"Well, call us whatever you want, Aaron. We will always be with you. Except for when you are in school, or have a job. We can't be there with you then." Steven semi-jokingly said.
"Steven!" Elise mock yelled, pretending to be angry at him.
"What? I'm just telling him!" Steven said, as they both held in laughter, although Aaron could not figure out why. This was the confusing thing about marriage. It was unexplainable.
They began their walk towards the store, and someone stepped out of the stoor as they neared the entrance. It was a girl of around age sixteen, who was currently holding a bag of shopping.
'Oh? Clothes for a new school, huh? Wonder if she'll be in the same school as me. It'll be interesting to see her reaction.' Aaron thought to himself. He was curious as to the kinds of clothes they sold in this shop, although, from looking at the window, he could definitely see they sold robes, and he was looking for one of those. He always admired video game villains who had the power to wear a robe, yet still be intimidating as all hell.
They were greeted by the shopkeeper, who recognised who Steven and Elise were, and gave them a complimentary 10% discount. It was nice being famous. People respected you. Aaron wanted to be as famous as his parents, and he knew he could be. All he needed was time.
Aaron was left to wander around the store, as his parents struck up a chat with the shopkeeper. Aaron was unsure of what they were talking about, but it didn't matter to him. He was just wondering about what kind of robe he wanted to get, and he found once that settled with him. It was his size, and was a dark blue colour. He tried it on, and went looking for a mirror. During his search, he found a white plague doctor mask. He popped that onto his head, and the beak of the mask poked out from infront of his face. He found a mirror nearby, and looked at himself in it. He looked like the Lunatic Cultist from Terarria. It was a game he used to play, while he was living his 'First' life.
He walked back to his parents, as he put his hands in the air. His hands became coated by a black material, so it looked like his hands were made out of shadow.
"Ah, it seems like the little adventurer had found a Ki-enhanced, or magic, cloak!" The shopkeeper exclaimed. "This one has a little Ki ability attached to it, where, once his skin goes past a certain point in the cloak, it covers his skin in a black Ki-based liquid, secreted by the cloak itself. It even stops people from looking at your skin, as a black layer of Ki prevents people from seeing your body! Everything in this shop has one Ki ability or another! Although, with that robe, it doesn't cover ones face, which is its only downside."
"This thing would work nicely-" Aaron's voice was cut off, as he heard his voice being corrupted by the mask. It had its pitch glitched up and down as he spoke.
"Oh, that's the ability of the mask, little one! It changes the pitch of your voice to a random one at a random interval, but it's at least a different pitch every half a second." The shopkeeper explained.
"So, this way, nobody would be able to recognise me as a child?" Aaron asked, fascinated by the ability this mask provided him.
"That is correct!" The shopkeeper confirmed, as he turned to Aaron's parents. "Your child is quite smart, Mr and Mrs Stone. How did he get so intelligent?"
"Well, it's a long story, but, to sum everything up right now, he's going to a school where he'll be dueling against people of a high Ki level." Steven summarised.
"Oh, how exciting! I'm going to guess that they are older than him, and he doesn't want to be found out as a child?"
"How did you know?" Elise asked, shocked at how easily he found out.
"Well, my Ki ability is being able to gain information, process it, and memorise it instantly. It's insanely useful. I just pieced together the information along with some logic of Ki Levels, and here we are." The shop keeper explained. Aaron overheard this, and was curious to how his ability worked. Did it memorise EVERYTHING? If so, that is both a blessing and a curse, because there are so many things you wouldn't want to be able to memorise.
Aaron's parents had a smile on their faces as they paid for Aaron's clothing. He took off the mask and the robe, and they were placed in a bag, which was handed to Aaron. He found it easy to lift, and so, they walked out of the shop, as Aaron wondered about his first day at an actual school, despite how inappropriate it would seem.
As Aaron walked out, a group of teenagers looked at him, as one of them held a spear of ice in his hand. As Aaron crossed over to the family car, the teenager broke the ice with his hand, as he shook with anger.
"That little Ki-less shit is coming to MY school?! Well, he won't last long in there. Not while I'M around."