The Earth After Rebirth

[Why indeed! Didn\'t he assault a girl at his academy?]

[Truly, bad news travel faster. You\'ve heard about that, but not the fact that the girl was a lying sack of sh*t?]

[He\'s probably a young master of some rich family and paid for that girls silence lol]

[I\'m a second year at Eden academy and I can attest that\'s not true. I saw him and his friend on their first arrival here, people gossiped about how poor they were.]

[So just a slum rat then.]

[People always focus on the wrong aspect of this. Whether he\'s a slum rat, he\'s getting your 100k if you\'re crap at this game.]

That last comment in particular got a lot of likes and replies. Kiro was scrolling through, this was new territory for him. He didn\'t quite know reading comments was a bittersweet experience.

Seeing the Ursa incident brought up again, he was angry all over again. It brought up emotions he thought were dealt with. It seemed like his character would be questioned wherever he went, he was forever stained he thought.

"Wow, you\'re quite popular." Hiro said peeking through his arm, fixated on the screen.

Kiro almost karate chopped him on the head, "dude, don\'t scare me like that, and why are you so close!?"

"Yeah, your insecurity isn\'t unfounded, you do stink." He shrugged being honest.

"Shut up!" Kiro said running out of the cafeteria to the showers. "I\'ll see you on the cricket ground."

Kiro thought it was a waste of time to shower when he was going for practice anyway, and after that he\'d be sweaty again. But he didn\'t want to seem as a pig, especially not in front of Isla.

He had just turned the water off when he heard two people enter the boys locker room.

"So you\'re just giving up Isaac? That punk Kiro has won?" An unfamilair voice sounded throughout the locker room. They surely thought they were alone.

"Of course not. I\'m a Blakeson, I never lose. That doesn\'t mean I can\'t lie low and bide my time, now quit bothering me. I have to go to practice." Opening of the locker could be heard, then 5 minutes later, the door of the locker room sounded.

Kiro came out. "Biding your time, are you. I\'ll show you." He quickly put on the cricket training kit given by the school.

At 2pm sharp, they walked into the cricket field. The field was unlike anything they\'d ever seen, it was clean and clearly well taken care of.

Already in their kits, which were the school colours. Compared to others both Kiro and Hiro noticed the kit was a bit small for them.

"Did you give me the right sizes?" Coach Smith asked.

"I think so, maybe we\'ve grown a bit, since we got here. I don\'t know, sir." Kiro answered.

"I\'ll have to measure you anew, don\'t worry."

Kiro cursed under his breath when he saw Isaac and that stupid girl Ursa had joined cricket too. But his mood recovered when he noticed two familiar faces, Nikolai and Felix. They were standing awkwardly by the fence, by themselves.

story-by-NovelBin

He nudged Hiro and pointed to them, they walked up to them with bright smiles. They hadn\'t seen each other in a while in-game, especially for Kiro who has been missing for months, on Kiro\'s end.

As they got closer Kiro noticed Felix\'s bandaged arms. He had originally thought they were just game accessories and he wore them to appear cool or something. They reached the pair.

"If it isn\'t our leader." Nikolai said first.

Kiro smiled and nodded in acknowledgement, "The one and only." He said, arms wide open as if to soak his entire being with the compliment.

Even though they went to the same school and they were at the same campus, they rarely saw each other. Especially because they didn\'t study the same thing, weren\'t even in the same dorm building. The only real time they got was through Asgard.

"You know Felix, I thought your bandages were game accessory."

"Well, I wear them because my many scars make people uncomfortable." He replied meekly.

"Why not get them healed?" Hiro asked dumbly. He knew there was nothing their technology couldn\'t heal, well except for death.

"I didn\'t know you cared what people thought." Kiro mumbled which made Felix smile, for the first time they\'d known him.

"I don\'t really have money to waste like that but even if I did, these scars are important to me. I don\'t wish to erase them." He said simply.

Why were they important was anybody\'s guess and since he didn\'t explain further they didn\'t pry. That\'s all they got out of him, Felix never spoke again about that.

"By the way," Kiro said while they were walking closer to their coach. "You don\'t have to be stuck in the mine forever. Come out if you want."

He nodded.

"Which subclass did you both get?" Hiro inquired.

"Shadow King." Nikolai quickly replied as if embarrassed to say the words in real life.

"Butcher." Felix said nonchalantly walking forwards.

Everyone stopped, "huh??"

Felix turned and gave them a very naughty smile. As if to tell them he knows exactly what they were thinking.

Before they could say anything else, the coach called for them to come closer. He introduced himself.

"I don\'t take crap from greenhorns like you. Right now you\'re still dirty and unpolished but when I\'m done with you. You\'ll be as good as new."

The first year\'s team was pretty timid, most of them had never played sports before. But this wasn\'t a big problem as evolved humans adapted pretty quick, especially when something was physical.

Coach Smith asked if anyone volunteered to play a certain positions, Kiro and Hiro volunteered to be bowlers. Felix wanted to be the wicketkeeper. Others who had never played were picked by the coach.

There were 18 players in total. So playing a game with each other was how they would practice, even though that number wouldn\'t be enough to break them into two teams they\'d have to make due. In 3 months time, the coach would announce his first string.

Luckily Isaac stayed out of their way and didn\'t cause them any problems. Glares were all he could manage.