Chapter 9: Respite

With the baby bird on top of my head, we talked and talked while we're on our way to my former high school. I decided to name him "Max" since it is more convenient to call him that compared to calling him "baby bird." He does not know what he is exactly, but he does have ancestral memories, which are memories embedded. He said that maybe over time, he could tell me what he is. With his help, my walking journey became a little carefree. Most monsters we encountered would get literally shocked when they came near us. They would get hit with lightning continuously and eventually turn into dust. Without any trouble, we arrived at my high school.

I haven’t entered these halls for a long time. It is a small school, so we were not issued with any alumni IDs. For me to be able to enter, I just stated my name and year of graduation. Upon entering, I got flooded with information. Apparently, the buildings are using multiple instances of space on top of each other. Think of it like the sharding technology of games these days; same places but multiple channels on top of it. I got all that information after a bunch of announcements. The most important of which is that the Montessori system of the school would be coming to offer us protection by midnight of the following day. Since I had a rough and long day and seeing as it is already 8pm, I want to just curl up and rest. Max, as always, is on top of my head, observing.

I headed straight to my old classroom with the instance being the year of my graduation. Upon entering, I felt a bit of joy. Some of my classmates who I haven’t seen in almost a decade are there. My closest friends whom I still hold dearly to this day are also there. It seems that my high school family was all together again.

One of my closest friends is Topher, my neighbor who is now a chef working at a restaurant. Another one is David, my entrepreneurial friend who now sells franchises of an upstart cram school. There is also Son, my friend who used to always fiddle with different items and is now a successful electrical engineer. Next is Julian, my hot-headed friend who now works in the tech industry. Finally, there is Roel, now a successful junior team lead in the offsite support industry. Some of our other classmates back then that we still hang out with today are also here. Most notable of which are Joyce, Jolly, and Dianne. Joyce, the wife of Topher while Jolly and Dianne are close friends with Joyce that we became naturally close with over time.

After some catching up, we decided to tell each other the story of how we got here. Topher and David were together. They both awakened together with Topher using the story of the rising pirate king and David using the story of the ultimate Shinigami as their basis of awakening. Son also awakened but unlike others where they got otherworldly powers, he received knowledge, otherworldly knowledge. If there is such a thing, he could be classified as having the potential of a magical engineer. Julian awakened after his house got destroyed and used the story of the alien warriors that use martial arts to protect the earth as the basis of his awakening. As for Roel, he didn’t awaken like me, but his pets did. They all evolved and protected him to get here.

Upon coming here, we all have no idea where our families are. We could all have gone to our respective work organizations, but this was the nearest place that would take us in. Before sleeping, the instances led us to our sleeping quarters with comfy beds for each of us.

The next day, since we were all relatively safe, we partied with the supplies I took out from my backpack. We reminisced about our high school days. We talked about the stories of us having fun, the stories of our love lives, and the stories of us cheating in tests back in the day. I also got reminded of my dream of becoming a teacher and teaching the next generation for the better. We spent the day like a reunion, just talking and laughing about the good old days. Midnight came and the Montessori system personnel asked us all to meet in the quadrangle.