“Throw him out.” Don Dominic ordered.

“Please, Don. I promise I won’t ever do it again. I won’t…” The human trafficker begged as he was dragged by The Don's two henchmen. One on each side as they dragged the human trafficker by the armpit then threw him out the window on the thirty floor they were on.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” The human trafficker’s voice was cut off in the middle of his scream by a soft and barely audible splashing sound.

“Now then.” Don Dominic addressed the other one who was kneeling on the floor in front of him. The Don stared at the human trafficker’s partner, who was trembling like a newborn dove, in absolute silence. Even his two henchmen’s footsteps didn’t make a sound in that silence.

Feeling like he put enough pressure on the man, Don Dominic stood up and beckoned the man.

“Young man, walk with me.”

The old man with head full of white hair from uncountable sleepless nights, wrinkles covering his skin could not hide all the scars on his body, his straight back refused to bend even with all the responsibilities. He led his people with absolute certainty as he pushed the room door open. He might be old but his voice still carries the same strength and authority he had acquired after two lifetimes of pain. The Don walked in front as one of his henchmen stood right behind him while the other walked behind the human trafficker’s partner.

“Greeting Don.” A union of voices welcomed The Don as he walked out of the building.

Don Dominic looked at the people in black suits forming two straight lines as they greeted him. These young men who had nowhere to go and no place to return to now grew up and became fine adults. He still remembered how it all started on his way home from an idol concert when he was someone who had nothing to do with the underworld.

He came a long way. But the only regret he had was he couldn’t be so open about his hobby for the longest time. After all, who would follow a Don who was a weeb? If he exposed such a weakness when he was The Heavenly Demon then both the so-called Righteous Sects and the Demonic Sects would take full advantage of it.

“Gentleman.” Dominic nodded at the people who had gone through thick and thin with him.

As he walked toward his car, he raised his hand and beckoned the human trafficker’s partner to get in the car with him. Once they were seated, the driver took off without needing Dominic to tell him where to go.

“Mr. Josh,” Don Dominic spoke, causing the human trafficker’s partner to flinch.

“Y-yes?” Josh answered with a quivering and tiny ass voice that Dominic’s aged ears could barely pick up the sound.

“Speak louder young man,” Dominic said calmly.

“Y-yes sir.” Josh did speak louder but the quivering was still there.

“You don’t have to be so nervous young man. You are still alive for a reason.” Dominic said. While it was the truth, it sounded like a threat for some reason. Dominic was sure he didn’t try to sound so intimidating.

Seeing that Josh was sweating buckets, maybe he should just get to the point.

“I want you to take care of an orphanage for me Josh.”

Josh looked up at Don Dominic with eyes as wide as saucers. His mouth opened so wide that Dominic was sure he could fit at least four apples in there with room to spare. The young man named Josh was making the real-life equivalent of the (OoO) face.

Well, it's not like Dominic didn’t understand why that was so. The young man just saw Dominic throw his boss, or partner, or whatever their relationship was, out the window, turning him into a fine red flower street art after all. If someone threw Dominic’s partner out the window and then offered him a job, he would surely think the guy was messing with him or just had a twisted sense of humor. Or maybe the guy was just absolutely crazy.

“Why me… sir?” Josh hesitantly asked.

Dominic raised his opened palm and the driver gave him the file for this human trafficking annoyance in their turb. He didn’t answer Josh but started reading the document instead.

“One hundred and two people disappeared from our turb. Clues suggested that there was a brief struggle but the victims were all quickly neutralized and brought to a different location.”

Dominic looked up, straight into the young man’s eyes.

The young man's gaze shook. He bit his lower lip as he dropped his head.

Dominic continued, “After two weeks of investigation, we found the children who were kidnapped in an abandoned church near the outskirts of Skyfall city, more than two hundred kilometers South of our turb. The team concluded that someone had been leaving clues behind for us to follow and rescue them. All the children were accounted for. Not a single one was missing.”

The Don closed his file, “Do I need to say more young man?”

Josh still had his head down, refusing to look at The Don. Was it shame or was it guilt? Or a little bit of both? Dominic didn’t know. He only knew that this young man still had a heart that cared for children. That was enough.

They stayed in that silence until the young man spoke.

“I…” Josh finally looked at Don but quickly changed his expression to that of horror when he turned his head to look at what made The Don snap his head like that. As the truck got so close he couldn’t even see the driver, Josh yelled, “Duc…”

Dominic couldn’t hear what Josh wanted to say. In his eyes, the world suddenly started spinning. He felt pained all over his body as the world continued to spin until his tired mind was forced into overdrive to react to what was happening. They were on a secured route but still got hit?

He was too old for this shit. Dominic thought.

Once the car stopped rolling, the assassins shot a rocket at the car, creating a deadly explosion. For normal people that is. Inside the flame, a shadow shot out toward the one holding the rocket launcher. Two withered fingers pointed out and stabbed straight through his eyes. The assassin's pained scream was cut short as the shadow quickly moved behind him and grabbed his throat.

Dominic scanned his surroundings. Despite the explosion stripped him of his shirt, showing his weakened body filled with scars, the flame charred his skin, his mind was still sharp enough. If one look at Dominic’s body they would realize it was harder to find a spot on Dominic’s skin that didn’t have scars rather than spots that did. Most of the scars were in the front of his body, the only exception was three bullet wounds on his back.

Five assassins, one old man stared at each other. Without a word, the assassins opened fire as Dominic lifted the one in his hands up, using him as a meat shield and charged at the rest.

He was truly too old for this shit.

-----

“D… quickl…g… th….doctor.” Broken screams and yells woke Dominic up.

The first thing he saw was light so white it hurt his eyes. He was too old for this pointing flashlight in the eyes as you interrogate someone bullshit. If they wanted to torture and interrogate him, they should just play some brain rot songs on TokTok 3.0.

“Don…sta…don’t you dare… on m…” The voice sounded familiar.

Oh. Its Terry. Dominic thought as he tried his best to open his mountain-like eyelids.

He saw his consigliere, Terry, as he was pushed toward somewhere on a gurney. Terry’s face was funny as he was all panicking and shit. Dominic had never seen Terry make that kind of look on his face. Usually, Terry just had that shit-eating grin on his face. Terry was the closest thing to a son Dominic had ever had so he knew Terry well. This might be bad huh?

Dominic’s head throbbed as his vision blurred by a veil of red spreading from the top left. Now that he tried to assess his own condition, he realized he could feel neither his hands nor his legs anymore.

It seemed like my time had come. Dominic thought.

Strangely enough, in the face of death, he felt nothing at all. Maybe that was because he been prepared for this for a long long time already.

“Don, you are awake.” Terry’s voice smashed into Dominic’s ears, waking him up just a little bit.

Dominic looked at Terry with his hazy vision. He couldn’t even see Terry’s face anymore. Dominic’s eyes slowly dropped. He felt so tired. He just wanted to sleep it all away and never had to worry about anything else again.

“Don’t you dare close your eyes old man.” Terry yelled. “If you die, you won’t be able to go to Holo 56th fes anymore. You will miss out on your oshi limited merch. Also, Fieren’s 12th  season and One Piece's 67th season are about to air. You can’t fucking die now.”

That does sound bad. Dominic agreed. Wait… the fuck???

Dominic opened his eyes as wide as he could and stared at Terry. How the hell did Terry know what Dominic did during his vacation and what his favorite anime was? His Qi sense made sure he wasn't followed. That’s a breach of personal space. Tch, kids these days have no sense of respect for the old.

“Yeah.” As if Terry could understand what Dominic wanted to say. “We all knew you like those stuff for years now Don. I was the one who sent a converted member to protect you when you went to all those events.”

Well, fuck my life. My image. Hum, maybe it was one of my fellow weeb, if it were then they were one hell of an actor. But there was a silver lighting, some of them didn’t betray Dominic after learning of his weakness. That was a good sign compared to his past life.

“I can assure you we won’t lose an ounce of respect for you and all that you did for us just because you like cartoon Don.” Terry ugly smiled but it crumbled when Dominic felt blood trickling down his mouth.

“So don’t you die on me now. Please. Please stay awake.”

Dominic heard all kinds of shouting in the background but he didn’t care. The only thing mattered was Terry. Dominic raised his trembling hand. Terry held Dominic’s hand in his as a drop of tear fell from his eye.

“Te…rry.” Dominic struggled to say what he wanted. “Take care of our….fa…mily.” While his finger word the world “traitor” on Terry’s palm.

More tears fell from Terry’s eyes as he nodded his head, “Of course. That’s how you raised me.” Behind those teary eyes was an unquenchable rage. The rage for the traitor that killed his foster father. But soon, it was hidden away.

Dominic smiled, “An…d.” Dominic inhaled for the last time. “Destroy my… comput…er.” Dominic finished his sentence as his lifeless hand dangled down from the gurney’s side.

“Don?” Terry called out to no one. “Dad.” Terry and the others who were pushing the gurney stopped. The others stood still with hands on their heart while Terry kneeled down next to the corpse as he cried his eyes out. He never cried so much before in his life.

For a short moment, the rage returned. “They will pay.” But it was hidden away again as Terry whispered among the tears. “I promise. No one will ever be able to find your 4TB pictures and videos of cartoon girl’s thighs.”

-----

“Oh, welcome back.” A warm aged voice called out to him.

Don Dominic, or rather Yang Sung Sok The Heavenly Demon, opened his eyes to a familiar sight as the old man’s voice entered his ears. This white cloudy space was the same as last time. There was nothing but the table and two chairs where the old man was sitting. He didn’t like the warm feeling it gave him last time but he learned how to appreciate it now.

“How was it?” The old man with long white hair and beard asked while pouring him a cup of tea.

“It wasn’t bad.” The demon pulled out the chair opposite the old man and sat down. “My foster son should be able to take care of the rest. I raised him to be a competent man after all.” He drank the tea.

The tea was good. Just the right bitterness that lingered at the throat. The freshness of the leaves relaxed his mind like when he cultivated under a waterfall during autumn. Chilling and relaxing.

“Great tea.” The demon complimented from the bottom of his heart. If anything, this tea was worth dying for. Heh, funny me. He thought. He wasn’t always like this. A mere eighty-four years living on Earth changed him more than he could ever imagined.

“So why am I here again?” The demon questioned.

“Because I couldn’t fulfill my side of the contract.” The old man sighed. “As I mentioned before, your last life should have been your last but as you can see. I failed.”

The old man paused then continued, “You did your part but we still failed to help you find what you wanted. So now, I’m offering you another choice.” The old man set two pieces of paper on the table. “You can either be reincarnated without your memory this time and we can and will actively fulfill our side of the contract for you.” He pushed the contract on the left.

“I thought you were just a salaryman.” The demon laughed.

“I still am. But solving your case will help me get a promotion so it can’t be held. I invested a lot in this too. I own a big debt just to get you this option you know.” The old man shrugged.

“I'll pass.” If there was still a chance then why would he give up on it? “What's the other option?” The demon sipped his tea.

The old man smiled and snapped his finger, causing the room to explode in a flash of light.

But the demon didn’t get transported to another world like he expected.

Instead, a kid appeared next to them.

 

Outro:

You thought this was when our mc got reincarnated. But it was I, Surprise development :D