This was a very weird day for Pearl to say the least.
Perhaps it was the world's deadliest assassin getting friendly with her surrogate son and to make it all stranger everyone else seemed to find that there was an assassin here.
However no matter what everyone else said Pearl still held a rich thesaurus of reasons to hate and fear the immortal assassin, but she knew she couldn't force him to leave through physical force so she tried a different angle.
"Well it was very nice to see you Mister Tao but were very busy right now and I'm sure you need to head back on a plane to whatever cave or dungeon you live-" Steven enthusiastically jumped in.
"Actually Pearl, Tao is moving here to Beach City so he'll always be around, won't that be great!?" Pearl gave a long unenthusiastic begrudging groan.
"Oh that's just…. SIGH" Great that's just great, the person Pearl feared the most would be a minute away, if everyone was so open to the idea of having a psychopath as a neighbor then maybe they should bake him a cake and invite him to dinner.
"Actually I should probably get back to my hotel now. I'll see you all around." Tao fetched the tree he used as transportation.
"Bye Tao see you later!" Steven waved his new friend as he traveled through the air.
Pearl kneeled down and placed her hands on Stevens shoulders.
"Steven I think we need to have a serious talk later."
LATER THAT NIGHT
"So you and mom lost to Tao?" Pearl finished explaining the story as Steven buried himself in his sleeping bag.
"Yes. You see Steven Tao is a very dangerous man and I don't want you to be around him."
"Just cause he is dangerous doesn't mean he is dangerous." Pearl looked at Steven confused.
"From what I hear you attacked him and he was just defending himself, he was even nice enough to spare you and Mom." Pearl had a weak smile.
"Oh Steven I know you want to believe in everyone but people like Tao… Their… Their a special case, I wouldn't put too much faith in him." Pearl adjusted his pillow and made sure he was comfy for the night.
"Yeah but YAWN Peridot and Lapis were mean but they changed I'm sure Tao can change too…" As Steven fell asleep Pearl gently kissed the top of his forehead.
"I hope you'll understand one day Steven."
TWO DAYS LATER
Today was the big day, it has been a very long time since Tao has had a real house, for the past few thousand million millennium's Tao would just stay at a hotel being waited on hand and foot or the residence of his latest victim but now he decided it was about time to settle down.
The word mansion would be a grave understatement, the word fortress would be more suitable; it looked like something out of a fantasy novel not that it was similar to a castle but more like it was so impressive and unbelievable you would only think to see it on the cover of a fantasy novel
Tao meet with a very shaky contractor, the man was sweating so much someone would think he had just ran a thousand miles.
"Th- The house is finished sir, over seventy five hundred acres just like you requested."
Tao took a few steps inside the house to inspect the quality of the house, the contractor followed like a nervous shadow.
Tao slowly stroked a finger across the woods much to the contractor's fear, knowing a single mistake could result in death.
"The wood?"
"Uh pink ivory, sandal wood, bocote and mahogany just like you wanted."
"And the glass?"
"Oh UL 752 Level 8 Fiberglass sir capable of stopping a military assault rifle."
"Good. Now what about the other rooms?"
The contractor quickly flipped through the living accustoms the master assassin wanted.
"So um sir we gulp. We meet all your requirements you uh wanted. Seven bathrooms, two billiard rooms, the library, the dojo, the trophy room, the wine cellar, the kitchen, the tea house, the bath house, the artillery room, the dining hall, the thirty four meter long pool, the koi pond, the gym, the game room, the ten master size bedrooms and it all connects to your casino via underground transportation that only people with the keycard can access."
"Good now I would want- Wait what?"
"Is something wrongs sir?"
"What casino I don't have a casino. And why would would I need ten master size bedrooms plus a game room?"
"Well technically only nine of them are master bedroom the other one is a guests room th- WHOA"
Tao lifted the man a few feet off the ground and stared deep into his pathetic soul.
"Who… Told… You… To install them?" Each word was delivered slow and demandingly.
"Your company sir! The wu- one who payed us half in advance!" If the contractor had a scale of one to ten of how scarred he was right now he'd be on about forty.
"What was their name?"
The plump pencil pusher quickly sorted through his papers to the name.
"Uh broke words sir!" He shouted in a frenzy.
"Broke words?" Just saying that outloud sounded ridiculous.
"Waitwaitwait! I meant to say this sir!" The contractor flashed the company who signed off like his life depend on it, once Tao saw the company's name he gave a rather annoyed sigh.
"Get out. You'll get the other half in about two to three days." Tao sounded much more annoyed than angry right about now.
"Really? You're not going kill me?"
"Not unless you continue to pester me." The man quickly ran as fast as his stubby little legs could possible move.
Tao was not in the mood for this what could his old team from two years want from him? The autocratically disabled bastard probably wanted to drag him into a war now that broke out of prison.
Tao did wonder however if the others would be their though? Not the mindless cronies the bastard has had like a old women hoarding a bunch of cats; he wanted to know if the others would be there.
Like the crazy priest? Or the rampaging blonde idiot? Would the pathetic coward and his psychotic little girlfriend be there? What about the near speechless demon woman? He knew the explosive maniac would be there, anywhere mayhem could be caused he would be there.
Whos knows what the bastards plan was. Maybe they were going overthrow a kingdom, maybe they were going steal an ancient weapon, or maybe just some good old mercenary work. That would be very entertaining…
NO.
Tao couldn't get all nostalgic right now, he came here to get away from his old life of violence, now he just wanted an eternity of peace was that too much to ask?
Tao decided it would be best that if he now decided to get to know the more run-of-the-mill people of Beach City.
As Tao walked the streets of Beach City he couldn't help but overhear the wisperful gospels about him, mainly when he passed a shop that smelled strongly of fish and melted cheeses, out of the corner of his eye he saw two young girls both with dark skin, black hair, and both wore identical pizza aprons he could only guess that they worked in a family restaurant.
"Hey Kiki check it out, its that new rich guy that moved here, ya think with all that money he could hire someone who made better fashion choices for him." This one spoke with a tone that could only be described as… Teenager.
"Jenny be nice. Maybe if you gave a compliment every now and then someone would leave you a tip." This one sounded much more mature and respectful than her sister.
"KIKI! JENNY! You don't talk to or about people who haven't bought our pizza yet! Bad for business!" Yelled thick accented man he could only assume was the owner of the restaurant.
He then passed a rather husky teenager with fry like hair who tried to "capture" him so he could confess that he was a government project gone rouge, a quick flick effectively knocked the chubby conspiracy out for at least a hour or so, Tao could've killed him on the spot but quickly reminded himself that he was going stop killing for a while, it is kinda like when people go on those paleo diets, they know that after a month or so they'll go back to their old ways just hopefully in smaller increments.
After a half an hour Tao was given an ad campaign flyer from a stuttering mayor, a glow stick from a scrawny teenager who said "Everyone in Beach City needs one of these babies in case there's a emrgcy rave." or something odd like that, and a coupon for Fun-Land.
He was having a rather obscure day but nothing too out of the ordinary for him, until he walked up to a small pale boy on the sidewalk who blocked the path.
The child wore red footie pants, a white sweater with a red periwinkle shirt tied around his neck like an ascot. The kid had pale yellow skin that almost looked like the flesh of an onion, and to make the resemblance more conving he had a small flop of blonde hair pointing up on his head.
"What do you want?" The child was unresponsive he simply stared at Tao with his unblinking eyes.
"Do you need directions or something?" Again not a single word was uttered.
This was getting weird even for Tao.
"Okay I'll just step around you…" As Tao paced around the little boy, he noticed that the child refused to break eye contact with him as he rotated his head as if he were an owl.
"Weird kid…" Tao would of liked to brush this off like it was a one off encounter but the boy once again appeared in front of him.
"What do you want directions?" The child gave off a rather eerie vibe, along with his mute tendencies made him resemble something like a slasher movie villain.
Tao picked up the odd little boy then jumped to the rooftop of a small briefcase store, placing him on top; he wasn't directory hurting the child so it would the kids own fault if he got hurt.
Things were back to normal… for a few minutes until the boy appeared right in front of him.
"What! How di- Where?!" Tao was flabbergasted, this pale boy was a frightening enigma, Tao wouldn't get any peace until he faced this problem head on.
"WHAT. DO. YOU. WANT?" Much to Tao's surprise the kid took out a picture with a man on it, the man was thin as a pencil, had sunken in eyes, and jagged teeth, and it had appeared that someone had added red circle around his head as well as big words colored in red marker that read "BIG BRO'S GROSS FAKE DAD, PLEASE ELIMINATE, LOVE ONION"
"Is your name Onion?" The boy nodded his head; of course his name was Onion.
"Well Onion I'm very flattered, and frankly you have very excellent taste, because I'm very go-" Tao scoffed, never one to shy away from inflating his own edo. "Well frankly I'm the best assassin there is, but I'm trying to lay off the assassination for a while, but once i'm out of retirement, you'll be my very first client, I won't even charge you, okay?" Onion gave a faint smile, Tao couldn't tell if this was a genuine smile or a repressing eternal rage smile.
Then the imp of a boy wrapped his arms against his leg in a friendly embrace; taken by surprise, and with little knowledge of how to comfort children (other than what he's seen on TV and movies) he petted the boy on the top of his head.
"Um okay… Can you let go now?" Onion just held on for the next ten secound without any response until he arbutltly let go.
"Hey kid do you want to see something cool?" Onion nodded his head.
The two spent the rest of the day with Tao vaporizing ketchup packets that Onion threw in the air, Tao had to admit it, he was finding himself having fun with the odd little boy.
After dropping the boy off at his home, Tao headed back to his home, he put on his silky robes and took his time enjoying his personalized wine.
While sitting in his cusioned throne he begun to try and enjoy his new boring life-
A sound emerged from his desks, when Tao heard it his whole world was pratcicly flipped upside down.
*purupurupuru* *purupurupuru* *purupurupuru*
He hesitated, should he pick it up? He knew who it was and what was probably going happen after they talked. If he started now it meant he would have to pack his bags and travel around the world making his new home pointless, then again their trips were quite fun and there is no such things as not enough money.
*purupurupuru* *purupuru- Ca LICK!
Acting out on sheer impulse Tao found himself holding the receiver.
"What do you want you sandy bastard?"
A low intimidating voice filled the room that even unnerved the likes of Tao(Though barely)
"Charming as always, I hoped you like my little gift,now, it's time to come out of retirement old man"