Chapter 2
What the hell is taking them so long?
That was all that Roman could think of as he sat on top of the rooftops, rain falling down on him as the darkness of the night hid him.
He wiped his wet hair away from his face as he checked his scroll, checking what time it was. It took him a while to configure the clock of the scroll to the new world's, but he thanked the gods at least numbers stayed the same it seemed.
Roman scowled as he thrust his scroll back in his pocket, now staring at the street below him, completely bare of any life except for a figure that stood outside of a lightly lit building.
Roman himself was looking more haggard than before, letting his iconic white jacket hang open on his chest and his black shirt sticking onto his body as more water rained on him. Even his normally styled hair was also messed up and his face devoid of any makeup.
It had been two weeks since the day he found himself in this shit world.
It had at first been a great shock to him when he found out; it was almost unbelievable. He had used everything in his power to find anything to fault it, but had always come up with the same result. He really was in another world.
Roman eventually had to come to a reluctant acceptance that he wasn't in his own world anymore, no matter how hard it was to accept.
Neo…
Roman frowned as he thought of her again, frowning as he did so. Not being able to see his only friend and most trusted ally in the world hurt him more than he would ever admit; more than what he, Roman Torchwick would like to admit.
And now here he was, in a world where no one knew him and no allies to call for; only himself and no one else, right back to square one.
So Roman did what he did best to survive in this new world,
Steal.
Unfortunately he couldn't just steal and rob from businesses or civilians; that would bring way too much unwanted attention for him and it wasn't worth the gain, especially after he learned the existence of Hunters here, or the correct name for them, heroes.
Heroes...
Roman scowled as he thought of them.
They were the near equivalent of Hunters back in his world, only this time they came after criminals like him, or as the government here would call him as he wasn't a normal criminal, villains.
Roman gripped his cane tightly as he watched a black car enter the street, slowly coming to a stop at the figure. He watched as two men exited out of the vehicle, both of them wearing matching bird masks.
They were the Shie Hassaikai, one of the Yakuza groups that apparently ran the underworld here in Japan, or at least in this area.
He didn't exactly know what the Yakuza were, much less be able to get any information on them. Not being able to read this world's language was proving more and more of a pain. He was only able to tell they were a gang by mere coincidence when he witnessed a drug deal.
But what else he did gather though, was that they were rich.
Not Mistralian crime empire rich, but richer than any gang possible in Vale other than possibly the Junior's little ol' club.
A risky unknown target, but a good chance of having a great payoff.
The earlier figure that stood out in the rain went inside of the lit building, coming back out with two other people, their figures barely visible in the rain.
It was time.
Roman stood up from his spot as he prepared to jump in and fight; a fight he did not look forward to.
He knew he couldn't target a large Yakuza group like Shie Hassaikai completely much less infiltrate their base of operations without Neo, but if they were in smaller groups like this, it did make it possible for him. It was still going to be an uphill battle for him though.
After living for this world for two weeks now, he had come to learn many things; such as quirks.
He had been ultimately surprised when he learned that the majority of this world's population had a power that was distinct to them, almost like a having semblance but with no aura.
But what they lacked in aura, they clearly made up for them in much stronger 'semblances.'
He needed to be careful in this fight; he still didn't know what the limits of these quirks were, not to mention they were very unpredictable. The only advantage he had over these gangsters was that he probably had more experience fighting other skilled superhuman beings, but it was still only a small advantage with his still weaker body.
Aura can mitigate that, but not completely.
Roman brought Melodic Cudgel up into the sky, preparing to make a grand entrance that was only suitable for a man like him.
As Roman was about to fire, he suddenly stopped, seeing something odd about one of the figures.
A young girl?
Roman eyes widened as he eyed the girl with suspicion.
The girl looked young, extremely young, almost the age of five or six. She had a head of bluish-white hair and a small horn on the right of her forehead, something he nearly missed. But what stood out the most was her almost palpable fear in her eyes as she was being escorted by the gangsters.
Why the hell is there a young girl here? Roman mused as he watched, not yet making himself known to them. Was she being kidnapped?
"Shit," Roman whispered to himself as he brought Melodic Cudgel back down, the appearance of the kid just made this job a lot harder. While he was a criminal, he wouldn't actively go out of his way to cause mayhem and damage for no reason as fun as it was. It would make his job harder than it already was with the cops on his trail.
But a kid? It was just as bad.
If the kid had been kidnapped, the cops would already be looking for her, and if he did anything to endanger the kid, the law would go right after him next.
And by law, he meant heroes.
Roman frowned as he thought of his options.
No. He couldn't just leave because there is a brat there; he didn't care if the kid got hurt. He needed to continue; he needed the money from this robbery to get by.
He was nearly fucking starving for gods' sake. The food he was able to steal was the only thing getting him by.
Not to mention, he wanted a new change of clothes.
Roman took a deep breath as he made his mind; he was determined to finish this job.
Roman aimed Melodic Cudgel to the sky again and fired.
Swish~… Boom!
The entire street was lit up in red as the flare exploded in the sky above, making the five figures turn to him in surprise. His figure now highlighted in bright red.
"Well hello there, ladies and gentlemen," Roman grinned as he stood on the edge of the roof, Melodic Cudgel now aimed at the gangsters, their figures now visible in the rain as the red light covered them: one woman and three men.
"I'd recommend that you hand over all of your belongings now, wouldn't want to get yourself hurt now, would you?" Roman spoke smoothly, his actions calm and practised from the many times he has done this before.
"Huh!? What was that you bastard!? Do you know who we are!?" One of the men came forward, angrily shouting at him as they finally came back to their senses.
"We're the Shi-"
Boom!
The man's shouting came to stop as Roman fired a flare at him, launching the man back as the explosion hit him.
"Don't care," Roman said nonchalantly, a smug smile growing onto his face. "Now hand over all of your belongings before you end up like that poor fool over there," Roman spoke as he pointed at the burnt body of the man with his cane.
Alive, but barely.
"Shit! I got the girl, get him!" The only woman of the group shouted.
Roman turned his aim towards the woman, firing another flare from Melodic Cudgel at her as he chuckled.
Boom!
The explosion hit the woman as he expected, only for the dust to settle to reveal a barrier made of mud between her and the explosion.
"Tch," Roman frowned as he stared at the mud barrier that slowly melted into the ground; a quirk that can create mud strong enough to withstand his dust rounds? He couldn't keep firing at her then.
He was already running out of dust rounds, and he had a feeling there wasn't any dust in this world he can use to refill it.
Before Roman could think of a way to deal with the woman, he spotted something flying his way in the corner of his eye,
A trash can!?
Roman cursed as he swiftly jumped down from the roof, dodging the trash can that was thrown at him and falling into a roll as hit the ground.
"Goddammit wh-" Roman cut himself off as he once again dove away, dodging a fist made of crystals that nearly crushed him.
Roman swiftly got back onto his feet, making as much distance from his opponents as he eyed them, taking note of what just happened in the past five seconds.
In front of him was a large man covering in crystals, his fists and torso particularly having the most crystals on them; most likely what he used when he tried to crush him. Behind him was an even larger man that was built like a body-builder, his fist covered in pieces of metal.
As for the woman, she was still beside the kid, ready to protect her from any incoming attacks.
"That was quite a strong punch there, shiny," Roman snarked at the man in front of him, "Too bad you missed," Roman taunted, waving his cane at him.
"Why you…" the man growled at him right before he charged, ready to bash his skull in.
The ground beneath him shook as he jabbed at Roman's face with his right fist, crystals expanding from it as it soared at him.
Roman held both sides of his cane as he deflected the crushing blow to the right, right before retreating a step back as the man swept the same fist out, hoping to catch Roman off-guard.
The man then went in for another crushing blow, jabbing with his left arm before swinging it in a hook, bringing it downwards onto Roman's head.
Just deflecting that punch already has my arms ringing. There's no way I'll be be able to block any, much less parry them.
Roman quickly sidestepped to the right, dodging the attack completely as it destroyed the street below it.
Roman made quick work of the sudden opening it left, swiftly striking the man's bicep and chest with Melodic Cudgel, only to no avail as the crystals protected him completely. At best, he was able to break a few of the crystals.
Roman drew back once more as the man tried to elbow him.
He couldn't fight against the man's defence either it seemed; he needed another way to go past it. A job that Melodic Cudgel's explosive flares seemed perfect for.
The man charged in once again, throwing a punch once more at Roman's head.
Roman swiftly ducked underneath it, barely dodging the crystals as he rushed forward, taking the man's left as he quickly crouched, dodging again as an elbow full of crystals went by the top of his head.
This left the man's chest wide open to Roman, an opening Roman planned to take full advantage of.
Roman brought the muzzle of Melodic Cudgel up as he shot a flare point blank at the man's chest, destroying the crystals that protected him as it exploded, creating a dark cloud of smoke.
The man roared in pain as he brought his arms up, planning to blindly smash whatever was in front of him.
Roman scrambled back as the man brought his large crystallized arms down, destroying the pavement beneath him.
Roman then got back onto his feet, using his smaller frame as he ran onto the man's crystallized arms, quickly rushing into the man's guard.
Roman quickly flipped Melodic Cudgel in his hand as he grabbed it with both hands, striking the man's chin upwards, dazing him.
Roman took this chance to fall down behind the man, twisting 180 degrees as he used the hook of his cane to hook onto the man's chest, using his momentum to bring the man onto his knees.
"Argh!" The man cried out in pain as fell on his knees,
Roman unhooked his cane as he struck the man's temple, knocking him out.
"Lights out, Shiny!" Roman grinned as he eyed his handiwork.
"Guh!" Roman cried out as he was suddenly pulled back, his world spinning as he felt himself be thrown into the air. Roman only caught a glimpse of metal right before an unimaginable force struck his chest, forcing out all of the air in his lungs as he was thrown back.
Crash!
Roman crashed into a building, indenting his body onto the wall before falling down onto the sidewalk.
"Cough, cough… dammit… what was that?" Roman coughed hard as he used Melodic Cudgel as a crutch, slowly standing back up again.
He was thankful he had aura, otherwise, he believed he would have died from that single punch. But even then, that took out nearly a third of his aura.
Roman straightened himself off as he eyed who just threw him.
The other gangster now stood beside his knocked out comrade, his expression unreadable behind the bird mask as he watched him get back up with no injuries.
"Oh? Coming in to save your friend, huh?" Roman remarked as he shook off the rain on his hair and out of his vision.
"I am, but now, I'm more interested in you," the man called out to Roman, surprising him a bit.
"Rappa! What the hell are you doing!? Just get rid of the kid already!" The woman called out to the man.
"Oh shut up, I haven't had good fight in a while… and this kid just beat Hojo! When have you seen someone beat Hojo so easily in a fight haha! I wanna see how strong the kid really is," The man now, named Rappa, called out to the woman in an almost exited tone.
Roman's eye twitched as the man and woman called him a kid. He hated how everyone now viewed him as a kid. It really was starting to get on his nerves.
An adrenaline junkie?
"Rappa, was it? You seem quite adamant that you'd even win?" Roman mockingly remarked to the man.
"Oh! The kid even has some spunk! This will be really fun!" Rappa called out, right before charging at Roman, his fists by his sides.
He was fast, but certainly not inhumanly fast it seemed.
Roman brought his cane up in a defensive position as he waited for the battle-junkie to come to him, ready to dodge and deflect any blows that came his way.
When Rappa was only a yard away, the man started his barrage of attacks.
Roman eyes went wide as the man's punch soared to him at almost the speed of a bullet. He quickly sidestepped the attack only to dive away from the man completely as his other fist came down on his head, barely missing him but fast enough it ripped a bit of his hair.
Roman fell onto the ground as he scrambled away as Rappa kept up with him, launching a barrage of attacks Roman could barely keep up with.
Shit! Shit! What is with this guy!? Roman screamed inside his head as he frantically dodged and twisted his body, only a hair's width between the man's punches and him.
This was on a whole other level compared to Eraserhead. At least the hero wasn't this stupidly fast or strong.
Roman ducked once more as a punch came his way.
The man's punches were just too fast and strong. So strong that his punches actually caused friction in the air.
It looked like he wasn't gonna be able to counter any time soon.
Roman watched as one of the punches came at his side, cursing as he watched it get closer and closer. His current body was too slow to keep up with the attacks. His only saving grace had been that the man's attacks were much more predictable than Eraserhead's at least.
He felt his whole body be thrown back at it struck him.
Roman let his body roll onto the ground, ignoring the pain as he let himself roll onto his back, quickly aiming Melodic Cudgel at the man and firing a flare at the his head.
Only for the man to punch it out of the air...
Poof!
The explosion created a dust cloud that covered the area, making the man fall back as it blinded his vision.
"Hahaha! Good! C'mon, show me what you can do!" The man excitedly laughed from the other side of the dust cloud.
You got to be kidding...
He's faced several Hunter's before, but not many were crazy enough to actually hit his flares out of the air.
Taking this chance to get back up, he fired another flare at the man from the dust cloud, colouring the dust cloud in a hue of red as it disappeared. He quickly then ran to the side, away from his firing point to hide where he was.
Poof!
The man once again punched the flare in mid-air causing another explosion, creating another dust cloud. Roman used this chance to get closer to the man and deal some real damage.
Roman jabbed his cane at the man's stomach as he appeared from the smoke cloud. The man groaned as sent a punch at him, only for Roman to dodge to the side.
Roman quickly flipped Melodic Cudgel over as he hooked the man's knee forward, making Rappa stagger. Roman then kneeled onto the ground, letting his back face Rappa.
As Rappa gained his footing again, he swept his fist blindly in the hopes of hitting Roman, only to miss and reveal what was in the dust.
The back of Roman's white jacket and the muzzle of Melodic Cudgel.
Boom!
Roman let his aura take the brunt of the explosion as it enveloped both of them, struggling not to be blown away from his own blast.
Thud.
Roman sighed as he heard the sound of Rappa's body falling onto the ground, slowly standing back up and straightened himself, turning to look at Rappa's body.
He knew he could never hope to take that man on face to face anytime soon. This was the best he could do.
"My, oh my… that's quite a lot of damage," Roman chuckled to himself as he stared at the man's charred body.
The man was still alive, though those burns were likely to be permanent unless there was a quirk to heal them.
"Now…" Roman muttered, getting serious again.
Roman eyed the woman protecting the girl, the last gangster left.
As for the woman, she was dead-scared of him.
Roman aimed Melodic Cudgel at the woman and fired a flare. Before the flare could get any further away from him, he quickly flipped Melodic Cudgel around and hooked the flare, re-creating the red crescent-moon of dust he used on Red before.
As the wave of dust came closer and closer to them, the woman frantically created a wide mud wall that encompassed the whole street.
Boom!
The dust attack rocked the mud wall, but didn't break through, making the woman smile. Unfortunately for her though, Roman's plan wasn't to break the wall at all.
He had forced the woman to create a wider and larger wall to compensate for the larger attack, letting the wall be shorter in height.
Another flare flew above the wall, hitting the building to the side of her. As the flare crashed into the building, it created a shrapnel of rubble as it tore the building apart.
"Gagh!" The woman cried out in pain as her head was struck with one of the pieces of rubble, struggling not to fall down from the sudden pain.
Roman took this chance to charge and scale the mud wall, using the hook of his cane to lift himself up the wall and swiftly hop over it.
As Roman landed into a roll, the woman tried to use her quirk again, only for Roman to throw Melodic Cudgel at her head, dazing her.
"Agh!" The woman gasped out in pain,
As Melodic Cudgel bounced off her head, Roman spun in place and grabbed the shaft of his weapon tightly in mid-air. Using both hands he swung at the side of her head, using the momentum of the spin to hit her even harder, knocking her out cold.
Thud.
"Lights out, sweetie," Roman grinned as he twirled his cane in his right hand.
The mud wall slowly started to dissolve, eventually leaving the area in complete silence except for the sound of rain.
"Hehehehahaha! Still got it!" Roman laughed to himself; he was still stronger than a bunch of gangsters it seemed even if he was in a younger body.
Well, strong might have been pushing it. He still knew there was no chance of winning against them in a fair fight.
But then again, when did he ever fight fair?
He then suddenly remembered there was another person with him.
"Hm? Oh, almost forgot you were there, kid," Roman spoke nonchalantly, still grinning as he eyed the shivering girl. Whether the girl was shivering out of fright or from the rain, he had no idea, nor did he really care.
Roman turned away as he prepared to loot the gangsters and their car, a smile growing onto his face. It was time to get what he wanted.
As Roman started to loot the woman's body, he suddenly heard a sound that he hated.
Sob… sniff…
The sound of children sobbing.
Roman's brow twitched as he heard it, but ignored it.
Ignore it, Roman. Ignore it.
As Roman finished cleaning out the woman's pockets, he started to loot the car. There had to be more valuable items in a Yakuza's car, right?
Sob… Sob…
Roman's brow twitched once more at the sound, quickly turning his head to yell at the girl to shut u-
Roman stilled.
Neo...
Her brown, pink, and white hair glistened in the rain as she sat there crying.
"N-Neo," Roman stuttered in a whisper, shaken with confusion, before blinking several times trying to sort out what he was seeing.
Neo was replaced with the girl, still crying as the rain poured down onto her.
"She's… not Neo…" Roman whispered sadly, his shoulders sagging.
Roman went back to looting the car, ignoring the girl completely now.
Why did he see Neo in her place? Why? Just… why?
She wasn't Neo.
Neo wasn't here. He was alone.
Sob… Sob…
Just stop crying already…
o – o – o – o – o
Eri was shivering in the cold wet street as she cried her eyes out. How had her life come to this?
She was scared and miserable.
Her father disappeared because of her and her mother... didn't want her anymore.
It was all her fault that no one loved her... she had killed her own father...
And her mother... cursed her for it.
She was cursed... and her punishment was Overhaul.
Eri cried harder.
Eri shrunk into a ball as she lifted her head up, the rain completely enveloping her small frame.
She watched as the young man who defeated her 'caretakers,' start taking their belongings and even robbing the car of any belongings as well as the house.
She was afraid of him as well, but not as much as she was of Overhaul. He saved her, right? But she was still afraid of him; what if he brought her back to Overhaul. Just the fear of thinking that made Eri just shrink into herself.
Eri covered her face with her hands again, crying into them.
She didn't know how long she had been crying, but she was getting tired. The rain was cold, so very cold. She just wanted to rest now, and get away from reality.
Swoosh!
Eri took her hands away from face as she felt something warm wrap around her small body.
A white jacket?
Eri blinked as she felt the jacket cling onto her body, bringing her warmth. Where did it come from?
"You wanna come with me, kid?"
A voice called out to her, making her looked up.
It was the young man.
What did he say? Go with him?
Eri blinked; not knowing what to do, she muttered the first thing that came to her mind,
"Huh?"
The man's brow twitched in response.
o – o – o – o – o
Sigh...how did it come to this?
Roman sighed as he used Melodic Cudgel to poke at the small campfire he made, shifting the small pieces of trash and twigs to keep the fire alight. The rain had gotten all of his clothes wet, and the added addition of it being in the middle of the night did not help in keeping himself warm.
On the bright-side, there was some silver lining in all of this. Roman took a glance at the bag beside him. Within it were several bundles of notes in hard cash, as well as few cards he picked up from the gangster's bodies.
Opposite to him was the little girl he had brought with him, sitting with her knees together as she held his jacket close to her, trying to keep herself warm as well. In her hands was the last piece of bread he had saved for later.
He had brought the little girl he found with the gangsters with him, taking her back to the abandoned warehouse he now used as a temporary base.
Roman eyed the girl from the corner of his eyes.
She was still scared of him, most likely due to him being a complete stranger or because he threatened that he would turn her into Mr. Rappa if she annoyed him. Not that he would though; she was still a child. He would never kill a child so young for such a dumb reason.
Well... maybe if push came to shove.
"Sigh…"
Roman sighed again as he closed his eyes, more drained before.
Why did he even give the girl the option of going with him in the first place again?
Oh, right…Roman thought to himself sourly.
She reminded him of Neo.
Why did she remind him of Neo? Was it because he met Neo in a similar way?
He didn't really know, but the thought of having someone like Neo by his side just made him happy, even if wasn't really her, and he hated himself for it.
But he just couldn't forget about her.
Roman opened his eyes as he stared at the girl, she had just finished eating the piece of bread and was now staring at the fire.
"Hey kid."
The girl's body jerked as she heard his voice, instantly bringing her eyes up to him.
"What's your name?" Roman asked.
The girl didn't respond, only bringing his jacket closer to her body and trying to hide in it.
"Sigh… I really hate dealing with kids…" Roman muttered in an irritated tone. He didn't want to deal with this so late in the night; he was too tired for this shit.
"Roman Torchwick. And you, kid?" Roman questioned again.
The brat stayed silent again, not even making eye contact.
Roman's brow twitched as he stared the girl, eventually giving up and went to lie against the nearby wall. He could at least get some sleep for now. Closing his eyes, he let his body rest and-
"… Er…"
"Hm?" Roman opened an eye as he turned his head and looked at the girl, even more annoyed as she decided to start talking now and not before he was trying to sleep.
"Eri…" the girl whispered.
Was she going to talk now?
Roman straightened himself as he sat up again; might as well question the girl now better than later.
"Is that your name? Eri?" Roman asked in a sleepy tone.
Eri nodded.
"You have any family I could hand you over to? How about the police? Or maybe even the... heroes?" Roman asked, though he had to force the word heroes out.
The girl slowly nodded her head, only for her to quickly change her answer. She shook her head hard, almost gaining tears in her eyes.
"Well, what is it, kid? Is it a yes or no?" Roman asked her in an irritated tone, ignoring the tears in her eyes.
"… they… they don't want me anymore… I don't want to go back there…" she spoke sadly.
"So your parents don't want you and you don't want to go back? Sheesh, to be honest I could have expected worse," Roman muttered to himself, staring away as he really wasn't that interested in the kid's story.
In all honesty, he has heard worse. He had heard of many kids being orphaned by Grimm or even their whole families being killed by bandits or gangsters. A kid's parents not wanting them was pretty light compared to those.
Though his apparent lack of empathy only made her break into tears as she hid herself deeper into his jacket, completely covering her head.
"Hm? Hey. Hey, kid," Roman called out to her, only to be met with silence.
Ah, goddammit, why are kids so annoying to deal with.
"Hey, kid. I'm sorry, okay? Is that better?" Roman called out to her again.
Eri slowly pulled the jacket down from her head, though she still had tears in her eyes as she stared at him.
"But would you really like to stay with me rather than a bunch of heroes? I mean, I am a criminal, and the heroes can probably take much better care of you," Roman told her.
Eri remained silent for a minute, before she finally had the courage to speak up again.
"I… I don't trust them…" she whispered quietly,
"You don't trust the heroes to help you?" Roman almost mockingly laughed at her obvious lie; the concept of a hero not helping a helpless little kid was ridiculous to him.
The girl remained quiet again before speaking up, sadness plain in her eyes.
"I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me…"
Was this the real reason?
"You don't want anyone to get hurt?" Roman scoffed; she didn't want the kidnappers to attack the heroes because they had her?
Eri nodded.
"Oh, then what about me?" Roman asked her, his anger clear in his tone; if she didn't want to go to the heroes because she was afraid of them getting hurt, then what about him? What if he died because of her?
Eri shrunk back as she refused to make eye-contact.
"It's… it's because you're a villain… I don't want good people to get hurt…" she whispered.
Roman stared back slack-jawed at her. What type of logic was that? Was she insinuating that villains weren't people? Because if she was, he found it absolutely hilarious!
"Heh… heh… hehehe, hahaha!" Roman started to laugh.
The girl at least had the nerve to look a bit shameful. Almost like when a child was caught with one hand inside a cookie jar they weren't supposed to be eating.
"Hahaha… that's some messed up way of thinking kid," Roman chuckled.
It was almost humorous that a kid would think this way; it was such a dark way to think of people who have done bad things, making it out so they weren't even counted as people anymore.
"Kid, let me teach you something," Roman smiled, his earlier irritation and anger gone.
"Just because a villain does bad stuff, doesn't mean they're still not people. At the end of the day, they are still people, just like heroes and civilians are," Roman lectured her.
Eri tilted her head as she looked at him with her large eyes,
"D-does that mean you're a good person…?" She timidly asked, hope in her eyes.
"Nope, not at all; I would put my life first before anything else, even if that meant I had to sacrifice someone else. Including you," Roman instantly answered, not missing a beat at all.
This caused Eri to shrink back again, losing hope in him.
Roman sighed as he watched the girl become more depressed, a bit of pity forming inside of him. He might as well try and cheer up the girl for making him laugh.
Maybe... he should tell her about himself?
"Well, actually…" Roman paused, now that he was about to tell her something about himself, he didn't know whether he really should tell her or not.
Eri looked up at him with her large eyes, making his lips form a small smile; his mind collecting memories of his old friend.
"There is this one person I would risk my life for…" Roman told her, his eyes leaving her as he stared at the fire; reminiscing in his memories.
Eri listened closely, hoping that the young man who took her away from her captors was a better person than them.
"There is this one girl I would risk my life for," Roman smiled nostalgically, something that was almost foreign to him. "She was petite, smaller than most adults, and was completely mute. But she made up for it in how she expressed herself to people."
Roman chuckled as he remembered how she didn't even learn sign-language, not because she didn't want to, but because she would rather express what she meant by her actions. Even if those actions were sometimes random.
"I still remember the days when we would go around the city, causing mayhem and running away from the law, not caring much of what other people thought of us as we lived our life by how we sought it, robbing and stealing. I even remember the first time we met by memory, a memory filled with ice-cream and hope."
Roman chuckled as he finished the sentence, still remembering how Neo asked for more and more ice-cream that day. She was smaller then, surprising him with just how much ice-cream she could fit inside of her stomach.
"We took on the world together; she was my one and only friend that I ever had, sticking by my side no matter what came at me and I would be by her side the same as well," Roman stopped speaking, a frown slowly taking over his face.
"But she's gone now," Roman muttered angrily, "She is gone from my life now… I don't even know if she's still even alive," Roman's fists clenched tightly as he recalled to what happened to her.
Roman blinked as he unclenched his fists; he was getting off-track.
"But enough of that," Roman spoke aloud, more talking to himself rather than Eri,
"I'd recommend that you get some sleep, it'll be a long day tomorrow, especially since I'm out of food now," Roman muttered the last part weakly. At least he had the money now to actually buy food instead of stealing it. He might even be able to fix up his clothes!
He turned to look at Eri, who looked right back at him with sad eyes, almost pitying him.
Roman's brow twitched erratically, "Oi, what's with those eyes?" he asked in an irritated tone. "Are you pitying me? Because you better not be, unless you want to be turned into charcoal," he threatened.
"N-no!" Eri replied quickly, scared that he might actually go on with it. "It's just that… you seemed so sad…" Eri muttered quietly.
Sad? Who, him?
Roman was about to explode on her right then and there but decided against it; it wasn't worth it.
So what? A little girl pitied him; it wasn't something he should explode on her for.
Roman sighed as he let himself lay back onto the wall, crossing his arms as he did so.
"Go to sleep, brat. You're going to need your energy tomorrow; just because I took you in doesn't mean you're not going to help me out," Roman called out to the girl, closing his eyes as he tried to fall asleep.
Eri sat there silently, before muttering out only one word.
"Goodnight…"
The building descended into silence as she also laid herself down by the wall, using his jacket as a blanket and pillow.
"Dammit…" Roman quietly whispered to himself a minute later, his eyes opening a little bit as he watched the girl fall to sleep.
What was wrong with him? Why did he tell her about himself?
He would have never done such a thing like this back in Remnant. It just wasn't him.
"Have I fallen… or is it just me who is changing…" Roman muttered.
He didn't know anymore; he had become more depressed after losing Neo and everything he worked to built up to. But doing something like this has made him feel something. A feeling that he hasn't felt in a long time.
"Tch…" Roman clicked his tongue.
Why am I even here? He wondered to himself.
What was his purpose for being here?