To Live Again, For the First Time!

Happiness came way too quick, too sudden, too unexpectedly.

Xander was speechless for a long time, or at least he felt like it had been a long time. In fact, it had only been a few seconds of silence.

Finally, someone's voice snapped him out of his daze.

"I have the feeling that Xander's silence is not wholly because he has nothing to say," Levi commented after he folded his handkerchief back into its original shape and returned it to his side pocket.

Emilin didn't understand what Levi was trying to insinuate, and so she just took it for small talk used to alleviate the silence, which she appreciated, and nodded.

'How come I don't feel like the adult here?'

As for Xander, he blushed when he heard from Levi, but he didn't refute.

Xander felt like he was a little kid at a candy store for the first time, wanting to eat candy, but then waiting for his parent's permission.

Just when he thought he wasn't going to get it, a bag of his favorite sweets dropped from the clear blue sky.

It was a nice, but baffling feeling.

"Ah-ah-ah, tomorrow? Tomorrow sounds great! Does your school have any rules for accepting disciples? Should I call you Master Emilin from now on?"

When it came to academics, Xander couldn't help but admit that even a genius like himself couldn't compete with a monster like Emilin.

He would feel no reluctance whatsoever calling someone a decade younger than himself, teacher if they deserved the title.

It had nothing to do with age anyways.

Xander didn't mean school as in a place, but rather when Masters took in students, and then those students took in students, they would soon be connections too hard to keep track of.

At some point, people would just say, 'I'm part of XXXXX school'.

Of course, there were still some old-fashioned people who would say 'XXXXX faction', but that way of saying soon faded because the academics found it gangster sounding.

They had a whole conference about it, and in that conference, they put it more adequately and nicely since many martial arts or sports schools still used the term faction, but they made their point.

Well, those people as well as most divisions in the military.

They did not take it well when they heard the term gangster-sounding used to describe their faction behind their backs.

"There are no such rules, and there is no need for a change in the way you address me, just keep calling me Emilin," Emilin spoke somewhat absentmindedly as she kept tight control over the situation on the computer.

There was a sudden change on the screen.

The opponent's level first dropped by a great deal (When Giovanni started using the captain's level as reference), and then the whole style of attack changed to something that wasn't nearly as confrontational, but rather more on the sly and sneaky side.

In Emilin's eyes though, these poorly laid traps only made her eyes furrow in displeasure due to a level of OCD that every human would have.

It would be like when you saw rolls of toilet paper ripped poorly and wet at its ends all over the floor, arranged in rows and columns where one just so happens to be out of place on top of a misfit tile.

Even if you don't have OCD… you have OCD.

The nervous Xander didn't notice that Emilin's attention was elsewhere, nor the small displeasure that could be seen on her face, but how could the observant Assistant Levi not notice?

'Is that kid TWO having some troubles?'

Levi felt a strange taste in his mouth when he had to process that TWO, the same person that he had imagined as an eccentric middle-aged man, was in fact in his teens.

He cringed when he tried to perceive the boy's age back when they first made each other's acquaintance, but he didn't show it on his face visibly.

'Fuck… a eigh- I can't even.'

If he didn't say the whole thing, maybe he could convince himself that he was about to think eighty-year-old and not eigh-- year old.

In his heart... ( >︹<).

The feeling of being defeated even though there was no fight was... ▄█▀█●

Xander, who had been opening and closing his mouth for a while now finally asked what he had been meaning to ask for the past few seconds.

Which didn't sound like a lot, but in absolute silence, felt like dozens of minutes.

"Um, if you're going to be accepting me as your student, would your master attend? I mean Master M."

Then Xander simply wanted to slap himself.

Who else could he possibly mean?

Masters were very selective when it came to accepting students and equally strict when it came to the students that their students accepted, after all this was the honor of their whole 'school' and thus the honor and reputation of the Master.

It wasn't unusual for another of an even higher rank to supervise the acceptance ceremony to bear witness, but to Emilin, who felt that the ceremony was just a formality, she didn't think too much about these things.

She felt like, if she said that she was his teacher, then he was...

"Oh, about that... I seemed to have forgotten again. I've been meaning to tell you that I'm M."

This time, Emilin's gaze finally deviated from the screen.

Things were currently very much in control and she felt like she had to show some degree of sincerity and apology for not having mentioned this earlier.

Xander: "..."

Levi: "..."

Xander was certain that if he had water in his mouth right now... well, it would no longer be in his mouth.

Even the usually outwardly composed Levi wouldn't be certain if he could keep water in his mouth if he had any, after all, his jaw had already dropped to the floor.

No matter how observant he was, he hadn't seen this one coming and neither did Xander who had spent more time with Emilin out of the two.

Though perhaps, they both simply didn't want to see this coming.

There was some level of denial involved, Emilin had dropped some clues.

But still, even if they had thought about this possibility for a split second, and I mean, just a split second, it was indeed a bit far-fetched. 

They also had no reason not to believe Emilin when she said that she was Master M's disciple since the other had already confirmed it.

It was slightly more reasonable.

Even her brother was TWO, known for being Master M's right-hand man.

This was crazy!

TWO's defenses were known for being impenetrable (with some unknown help from Emilin every once in a while), and M, well, his, well her, deeds were widespread among those in the industry simply because of her unprecedented innovations.

Crazy!

Crazy!

Their whole family… both Xander and Levi didn't know what to say about them at this point.

How were they supposed to act?

Was there even a 'right response' for this?

The two of them were staring so unreservedly that Emilin didn't know what to say.

'Should I have told them earlier?'

Well, the right answer to that question would be a big fat NO. 

It was actually a good thing that Emilin had only revealed this information after they got to know each other, or more specifically after Xander got to realize that Emilin was just a regular…ish teen.

Xander, who saw M as his personal hero and idol, and only that, he may not have even been able to meet Emilin properly.

Now, Xander felt like Emilin was kind of like the little sister that he never got to have, which eased the rest.

That and the fact that Xander's world views may very well have shattered twice, into millions of pieces, if they had met as M and Xander rather than Emilin and Xander.

Thankfully currently, they only shattered once into thousands of pieces, there was still hope for this poor man's ego.

Levi, who had also been silent to this moment, had nothing to say. Nothing to fill in this silence.

What could they possibly want him to say in this situation?

He was almost more shocked than Xander!

According to all the novels he had read, these backers were either secret family members of the main character, big bosses (male), or female interests!

Levi had seen Emilin and Xander's interactions, they were anything but intimate, romantic, and they absolutely could not be sexualized.

Let's just not talk about Emilin's social awkwardness and silence, as well as Xander's preference for older women, the most important point here, was… the 10-year age gap.

With this age gap, though there could be a relationship (not ageist here), according to novel law/ theory, there would only ever be a relationship where the older one (normally male), supported the younger (normally female, sometimes male if in a bl).

Considering Xander's traits, they were clearly not going for a novel [1] route.

Emilin was clearly neither family, nor dominating male, nor coquettish female… so what was going on here?

Was it really all by chance?

By fate?

That they met…

Levi's imagination ran wild as his face remained serious and the other two just let him be.

In the end, another moment of silence ensued, and Emilin, being the awkward teen that she was, looked back at the computer so that she wouldn't have to trouble herself trying to pick up social cues.

Ah, social cues.

Emilin didn't even have to purposefully ignore them as they would fly right over her head, they were clearly something she could not pick up, after all, for her, they never landed close enough, not even at a viewing distance.

They were still flying when they left for the horizon...

[1] Novel: interestingly new or unusual (dictionary)

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