A Tale After Four Lives - Volume 1: Receiving The Reward Chapter 31 31: A Long Night

Hyoudou residence.

Looking at Issei rubbing his head Alex was laughing on the inside, Issei looked at his mother with a face as if he had been wronged.

“Don’t look at me like that you know exactly what you did”, Miki scolded but could only sigh afterward, “You two go and play”, she said as she gave Alex an apologetic smile.

“I’m sorry Alex, Issei can be quite… strange sometimes”, Miki said.

Alex gave a light chuckle, “Don’t worry, I’m sure hell grow out of it eventually”, he tried to convince Miki, but whether or not he believed his own words was another matter.

Alex and Miki kept talking for some time, after some time the front door opened and somebody came into the house again, he shouted, his voice traveling through the house, “Honey, I’m home and brought some company.”

“Gorou!”, Miki stood up from the couch and went to the front door to welcome her husband home, meeting him halfway she hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, “Welcome home” she said sweetly while smiling.

Alex saw the whole thing from where was sitting and smiled, not wanting to ruin the little moment he just remained silent, but it seemed that Gorou’s guests didn’t have the same idea.

Caught*

Miki came out of her trance as she immediately let go of Gorou, her face red as she took a few steps back, staring at the man that interrupted her moment in embarrassment. Gorou just laughed while scratching the back of his head, catching somebody in the living room out of the corner of his eye’s he stared in that direction and was dumbfounded to see Alex there smiling in their direction.

Before Gorou could react Miki spoke, “Why didn’t you tell me that Touji and Inako came”, Garou looked at Miki, “I did”.

Miki ignored him and went towards the man and woman that came in after him, the man was dressed casually with a pair of sneakers, jeans and a white shirt, he had light brown hair and eyes. The woman wore a red dress, she also had brown hair but were of a darker shade with green eyes.

“Touji, Inako, its good to see you, come in, come in, we don’t want you standing in the hallway the whole time.”, Miki spoke as she leads everybody towards the living room, where Garou finally remembered Alex, who was still just watching their interaction with an eternal smile plastered on his face.

“Alex!” Garou walked forward and shook Alex’s hand, “How was your trip?”, he hadn’t seen Alex in years and was happy to see his quiet neighbor again.

“It was fun, though not what I expected.”, Alex said, standing up he faced the two new guests, “Alex Wold, a pleasure to meet you”, he said towards Touji and Anako.

The two greeted back as Touji took his hand and shook it, “Touji Shidou,” he said then gestured towards the woman, ” and this is my wife, Inako”. She smiled at Alex in greeting.

Garou looked at them and then laughed again, “Now that we have this out of the way, lets…”

“Daddy”, a childish yell came as she ran towards Touji, Alex watched as Touji picked her up and twirled while she laughed, “So she’s his daughter, can’t understand why he would let his cute little daughter dress like a boy but, to each his own I guess.”

“How was your day my little angel”, Touji said while tickling her causing her to laugh out loud while trying to fight off his hands.

“That looks familiar”, Alex thought as he thought back on his days with the Sitri’s he let out an inaudible sigh.

Standing up Alex looked at the group, “Well I should be going”, his declaration made everybody stop as they looked in his direction in confusion, and Issei that just came into the room, stared at him as if saying, “What are you still doing here anyway”.

“What do you mean Alex, I just got here and we haven’t even gotten a chance to catch up,” Garou asked in confusion. He had not seen his about in a long time, thought the amount of time they spend getting to know each other was short, there was something about him that made comfortable in his presence.

“I guess, I can stay for a little longer”, Alex said as he sat back down on the sofa to everybody’s delight and Issei’s dismay.

Touji sat next to Alex as he started making conversation with him and Garou soon joined them, Miki and Inako sat nearby and gossiped. Issei and Irina ran back to Issei’s room to play.

After a long time, Garou finally brought out his most prized whiskey for them to drink, “Let’s see how you two hold your liquor”, he said with a smile. Miki wanted to stop him but then thought about how it was Saturday the next day anyway, he didn’t need to go to work so she just let him do what he wanted to.

Garou threw each of them a glance and then razed his glass, he spoke “To friendship”, Touji and Alex both toasted with him and down their glasses. Garou stared at the two after he finished, “Hope you didn’t plan on being somewhere because you won’t be walking tomorrow, ha”

A few hours and bottles of whiskey later.

Alex sat relaxed on the sofa with Garou and Touji trying there best not to fall down, “Al..hic..ex, damn. That one…hic.. iron stomach, ya…hic…got there” Garou said while looking at Alex with droopy eyes only causing Miki to shake her head in embarrassment, “Boys” she thought. Touji sitting Alex’s other side was lying back in the sofa head staring at the ceiling as he groaned in agreement with Garou, turning his head too looked at Alex. Inako just covered her face with her hand not even wanting to look at him.

Alex stared at his glass that was empty, looking around he locked onto a bottle with still a bit of whiskey in, he emptied it into his glass and under the dumbfounded gases of the two men and woman he downed it with one go. “Monster” was all that went through everybody’s mind except for Touji that passed out after seeing Alex pour himself another glass.

…

After helping Miki carry Garou into there room, Alex grabbed Touji and threw him over his shoulder, deciding to walk Inako and Irina home while carrying Touji, Inako protested that he could just leave Touji on the couch and she would fetch him the next day but Alex just ignored her and walked out of the house with and dead drunk Touji over his shoulder and an embarrassed Inako and Irina following him.

After walking the one and a half ladies home Alex walked back towards his own house. Walking past an ally a shadow jumped out, moving towards Alex as a sharp light past by his neck.

Chaaaa*

With the sound of metal slicing against metal the light moved past his neck. Jumping back Alex looked at the shadow or person it the dark with curiosity. After seeing what the person looked at Alex was dumbfounded.

“Did a serial killer just try and out me?” he thought not believing what he was seeing.

The guy in front of him was just your average mortal human with no superpower unless you factor in his “Super-stupidity” as on. He was holding a badly damaged knife, compliments of Alex’s neck, his hand quivering from the rebound force he got after trying to stab Alex.

The guy looked at Alex in confusion as this was the first time something like this ever happened, his victims would usually either die on the spot or bleed to death, having his knife be damaged but hitting the neck has never happened before and he just couldn’t process this.

Alex slowly walked towards his would-be killer and place his hand on the confused man’s shoulder, the man looked at Alex and the confusion finally wore off as the reality settled in and his eyes were filled with terror as he looked at the monster in front of him. He also saw something else that should not happen, the monster’s purple eyes glowed, instead of reflecting light they actually emitted light, purple light.

“Don’t worry, it will be over soon”, Alex said as he squeezed lightly with his hand holding the killer’s shoulder while pouring a bit of energy from his hand. The killer didn’t even have the chance to make a sound before his eyes dilated and he died, Alex released his body and as it slowly fell backward it slowly turned into dust.”

Alex didn’t look at the killer again as he made his way towards his house, he opened the front door and headed to his room to go to bed ignoring the various stares of the children that for a reason he didn’t care still hadn’t gone to bed.

Lying down Alex closed his eyes and welcomed his dreams.