“I’m sorry?”

Lawrence breathed pure relief as the lady he had just saved from the sign of fate (quite literally at that) retreated from her previous position. Namely, on top of him. It looked like she hadn’t heard him. Which, considering what he had said before, was a relief.

I’m… Not proud of my humor. Nope, not at all.

“Nothing. Nothing at all…” Lawrence looked at the lady again, since he hadn’t had enough time to check her out. Giant falling signs do that to people, after all.

She looked young, but not as much as Mika. If he had to say, she’d round the mid-twenties. With strawberry-blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail, sapphire blue eyes hiding behind the frames of office-worker glasses, and a small nose that reminded one of Orientals, she certainly had a mature charm. This was further increased by her business suit and suitcase.

Hmm, hmm, there’s a term for this kind of woman, right? Mother I’d Like to—

“Thank you for saving my life. What were the chances of that strong draft of wind in this street of all places…?” The lady sighed and cleaned her dusty glasses with the rim of her blouse as she thanked Lawrence. As a matter of fact, he asked himself that very same question. After all, what where the chances that an air current strong enough to unscrew a giant sign in a twenty-store building blew in a street that was blocked by similarly tall buildings from all sides? Something smelled fishy though, well, it could also be just coincidence at work.

“I wonder that too…” Lawrence observed carefully the place where the sign had fallen from, but as expected, he couldn’t find anything that pointed men’s hand at work. “I guess luck is sometimes yucky. Though, well, it seems karma made it up with you via me, huh?” He laughed, though it was a rather bitter smile. He didn’t like thinking about fate and such.

“Well, I can’t thank you enough for this, Mr…”

“Lakewood. Lawrence Lakewood” he shook her hand…

…?!

With no previous notice, an incredible chill of cautiousness shook the very core of his spine. The second his hand touched hers, his hair stuck on its end like a scared cat, and he got goosebumps all over his skin.

He observed her face and noticed nothing. She apparently hadn’t realized his thoughts at all.

Just what the hell is this woman…?!

“Thanks, Mr. Lakewood. I’m Christianne Agatha. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Lawrence breathed in and out multiple times trying to calm himself. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say he had just gotten a jumpscare, but feeling like that on a lady that was acting so nice at him would be rude…

The question is, is that really just ‘acting?’ I wonder, because… So far, my instinct hasn’t failed me once…

He stared dead in the eye at her. Her sapphire blue eyes remained fixed on his’, refusing to give in. He couldn’t read her intentions at all, and he was normally pretty good at reading people if he made an effort.

She isn’t normal, is she?

I’ll have to handle this one with care… Or rather, make sure this is the last time we meet.

“Well then, Miss Agatha, I’m afraid I have an appointment and I’m already running late for it, so if you’ll excuse me…”

“Of course, I wouldn’t dare stealing more of your time. I hope we meet again.”

“Hmm” was all Lawrence replied as he walked past her. Though, on his mind, he was thinking I really hope that’s not the case.

Before they got too far from each other, however, he got to notice one last thing as he gave her a last check. In her suitcase, written in golden letters, words that made Lawrence’s heart race madly were engraved at the top.

“Christiane Agatha, Law-enforcing Heroes Union: Logistics”

 

 

• ••••

 

 

Wiping the sweat of his forehead, Lawrence unlocked the door of his house and entered his comfort zone once again. He was still thinking of that close call from earlier.

“What the hell?! Just, what the hell?! First a nigh-impossible blow that nearly crushes a sign in my head, and then an employee of the LHU that also gives me the creeps?! What’s with my rotten luck lately?!”

Well, seeing it from a different point of view, he had actually pretty good luck all things considered. After he calmed down, changed clothes to his houswear set and sat on the couch with the TV remote in one hand and an apple in the other, he was able to think things more clearly.

“Well, you could also call it ‘good look’ seeing how a LHU officer now owes me one… Not that I’d like that woman owing me one when she makes me nervous tot that point. I’d seriously rather not see her again in my life.”

Seeing those words of his, one could imagine just how much had their meeting affected him.

Well, they wouldn’t have to meet again, anyways.

Probably.

…

……

………

“Knowing my rotten luck, it’s going to be a miracle if I don’t run at her again tomorrow… Hmm? What’s this?”

Having finished his apple and throwing the remains in the trash can with a perfect score, he rested his hand on the couch… or thought he did.

“Why is there a strand of hair in my couch?!”

No, no, you probably misinterpreted him. He meant there were several strands of hair in the couch, attached to something.

“What in the actual fu—”

He pulled, but whatever stuck inside the couch wasn’t giving in.

“Come on!!!” Stepping on a side of the couch like Arthur had probably done with Excalibur in his due time, Lawrence groaned and pulled with all his might…

There was a shriek, then a ruffling sound, and finally a hollow thud.

“HEY!!! Don’t pull my hair! That’s rude!” Mika complained as she massaged her head in the zone Lawrence had nearly ripped it apart.

He stared at her blankly, still trying to process the fact that a living person had just come out from inside the slits between the cushions of the couch.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

For a moment, the fact that he was supposed to act like some sort of snobbish genius was completely forgotten, and all that replaced it was Lawrence’s “Fucking shit” mode.

And hell went loose.

 

 

• ••••

 

 

Mikaella Brown was, ever since she remembered, a tough girl.

Abandoned by her parents at the tender age of two, she had been sold to an illegal restaurant (their main ingredient a secret) for a no-return ticket to the Amazonas.

For what she had found out later, they were poor and selfish, and always wanted to experience the jungle to run away from the suburban hell they lived in. It worked out great for them… Until their remains were found in the abandoned village of an Arauco tribe. Ah, the irony of life.

Fortunately for her, thanks to a raid of the LHU, she was spared from her obscure fate.

The thought of what she avoided still sent shivers running through her spine.

Mika thought, in the hands of the Heroes, her life would stop being a veritable hell and she would be finally able to enjoy the normal person’s life.

Foolish girl.

As soon as they processed her, she was thrown into some random orphanage.

The rest, the history of going from foster family to foster family until no one wanted to take her in, the part of surviving in the orphanage where smaller kids wanted to steal from her and older boys… Older boys were bad boys. This was a common story among orphans.

Her background, and the fact she had been abandoned, twice, only made it worst.

Still, Mika was a strong girl. And crying was for the lame who didn’t have the will to change their situation.

With this resolution, she finally turned 17, and she was discharged from the orphanage.

Living on the streets was a lot easier, and thought it wasn’t paradise, compared to her previous situation, it had been pretty good. She was all that she had, and that sufficed for her. After all relaying on others had never worked out for her, and probably never would.

To that point, she thought life would continue to be this way. Quiet and nice… At least as quiet and nice as it could be for someone who stole for a living and lived on a dumpster. Not that she was too troubled about that.

But then, some freaking huge thing came and told her she was a Villain.

Her first reaction was something along the lines of “Really? Weren’t abandoning parents, an anthropophagus restaurant, living in the orphanage system and them moving to the streets good enough? Stop shaking my stuff with a stick, man!”

…

Well, she wasn’t proud of it.

But she got used to her power quickly. And she liked it a lot. It was a space all for herself, a world of infinite possibilities… Even if she could only use it for a few seconds, it started to feel like another home for her.

So yeah, her life had been a busy, but good one.

 Then the thing with the Chief had happened, and her life was once again starting to take an unbelievable turn.

First than all, she went to see a spiritist and ask her if she was cursed or something.

After confirming she wasn’t, she tried out the life he had offered her.

And she was smitten. With the life, not with Lawrence.

The bed. A piece of furniture used to sleep with cheat-like fluffiness, comfortableness, coziness, and perfect temperature adaptability. Nothing to do with the beds from her orphanages, which, if they were a piece of cardboard with some wool and puke on it, was too much to ask.

The TV. A magical apparatus that displayed something happening somewhere else, or a film completely improvised, with a quality so tremendous it feels real. Nothing to do with the TV of the orphanage, a talking box of graphic noise which, if you were very lucky, you could get to hear once a day.

The food. A heavenly consumable that fully revitalized you and presented paradise to your taste buds. Nothing to do with the food of the orphanage, which you were luckier if you didn’t taste it at all that if you got to even know what it was like.

Everything, so goddamn comfortable she wanted to crawl up in a corner and sleep there forever.

And all of that, only for her services.

In truth, the day she had gotten her powers, she didn’t think much of developing it. It felt like home, but it wasn’t something she would use to fight or something. Maybe running on a pinch. What could a single girl do against the whole LHU, anyways? Now that she could use them to keep this kind of life, though, it was a different business.

So she decided to start training with her powers.

The only problem was, she got bored of it quickly. The cooldown was a con, and she lost concentration easily.

Somehow, after a few hours of training, she ended up getting all sleepy and laying in the Chief’s couch.

It felt so comfy she just crawled between the slits and snuggled with the cushions. It truly was an enviable position.

It really was…

Until a purple eyed demon pulled her out of it by her hair.

“HEY!!! Don’t pull my hair! That’s rude!” she yelled to the demon.

“Shut up.”

She kept talking… Or rather, she tried to.

Weird, though. Her body wasn’t answering to her.

It was too busy trembling to do something like that.

Why was she, though? She wasn’t afraid of some random…

…

…demon?

W-W-Why is the chief giving off that ‘I’l kill you vibe?!’

This was bad. Really bad.

Mikaella Brown would experience first-hand one of Lawrence Lakewood’s wrath outbursts.

Whether she would live to tell the tale or not, it would be seen from now.