The power of relationships

"Did you just said 'dad'?" Zeke asked confused and amazed. "That means you two are…"

"Oh, didn't I tell you Zeke?" replied Herrler "Luis is my son. Looks like I missed a small detail, opps" he continued laughing.

At that moment all connected in Zeke's mind, he understood the real reason why Herrler wanted Zeke to meditate Luis. It wasn't because Luis was a bad student, but because he wanted them to be friends "Mr.Herrler you little snake…" thought Zeke.

"Well, I thought you two would make a good pair, after all Zeke, you don't have many friends of your age but you're a very smart and talented boy, and Luis is new in town and doesn't know anyone, so I said to introduce you to each other"

"Well, I think we could have handled it Mr.Herrler…" replied Zeke in a manner that made Luis speechless "But please don't misunderstand it!" he instantly replied after that, waving his hands in the air "I'm very grateful that you've thought of us, but…"

"But we can handle it" replied Luis, continuing Zeke's idea "We're grateful for this, Herrler, but I think we could handle it on our own"

"Hmm" Herrler replayed, stroking his beard "If that's what you say, young gentleman, that's probably what would have happened…" he then made a small pause "Or probably not, we'll never know" he end up laughing again "Well, If you'll excuse me boys, I'm leaving now, because I have to go to class, and you should do the same, I hope you have a nice day

"Thank you Mr.Herrler, I hope you the same" replied Zeke.

After Herrler left, only Zeke and Luis were left behind. Zeke looked at Luis, to see his reaction, and he was trembling, he clenched his fist with such force and frustration that it was already visible.

"Is…Everything alright Luis…?" he asked.

Luis took a moment before answering, he sighed deeply, calmed down a bit, and after that he replied to Zeke. "He always likes to do this" he answered with frustration in his tone "I've gotten used to it for so many years that he teases me. I'd love it if he would finally end up with these tricks and acknowledge me as an adult already…"

"Well…technically you're still a child, you're still 19"

"What do you mean I'm still a child?" Luis asked confuse "I become an adult a year ago"

Zeke took a moment to understand to what Luis was referring, but after some seconds of deep thought, he connected all the information he had "I see…I understand where the problem is"

Luis was looking forward to hearing his conclusion because he felt confident in his arguments.

"You mentioned that you were new to the country; nevertheless, the laws of this country only recognize you as an adult after you reach the age of 20, not 18, as in other states. So, to put it another way, we're still teenagers"

Luis listened carefully to what Zeke told him, and in the end he ended up being right. The country's laws only consider young people who have reached the age of 20 to be adults, rather than the 18 and 19-year-olds who are recognized as adults in other nations, such as the one from which Luis came.

"To be honest…I didn't really want to come here" Luis said at some point.

"Huh? Why?" Zeke asked, confused.

"I just don't want to see him" Luis said out of pure frustration, while Zeke listened quietly. "I only came here because my mother wanted me to be by Herrler's side…and I couldn't disappoint her, so here am I"

"I see…" Zeke replied "So Luis and Mr.Herrler don't have the best relationship, hmpf, it seems more like a family problem, I don't think I should intervene too much…" he then said to himself.

"I'm sorry to tell you all this…I don't think you're too interested in my personal problems, but…I feel as if I've known you my whole life; you fill me with confidence and comfort whenever you're in my presence."

"It's not a problem, Luis; if you feel comfortable discussing such things with me, you may talk all day; I'm here to listen."

"Zeke…" Luis replied half-mouthed "Thank you…really…thank you"

Zeke approached Luis and put his right hand on his shoulder "Luis" he said looking him in the eye "I know all too well what it's like to have a problem with your parents, we've all been through this at some point, and I understand why this is happening"

"Why?" Luis asked confused.

"Because, you just want to make your parents proud" Zeke simply replied with a smile on his face "You just want to make your parents proud, and this is totally normal, you shouldn't be ashamed or be annoyed by this"

"Zeke…I…" Luis tried to say, but he chose to remain silent.

"Luis, I see what you're going through; I, too, wanted to make my parents proud of me a long time ago...And now, look at me, I'm just a loser," Zeke said, his tone serious at first but quickly changing as he began to talk, to a more sorrow one "I have nothing to be proud of, I ended up separated from my parents a long time ago, maybe that's why I stopped doing things to be proud of."

At that moment Luis wanted to say something regarding Zeke's story, but he was instantly shut down by Zeke, who continued to talk.

"That's why I will help you Luis, so you don't end up like me, we'll find something to make Mr.Herrler and your mother proud of you"

Luis couldn't say anything at the time; he was staring at Zeke, speechless, with an impressed and slightly sorrowful expression on his face, as if he wanted to say something.

"Zeke…" he said in the end "Thank you" he said with a sincere tone "I know you're exaggerating, I'm sure you have so many things you can be proud of, we all have"

"Hmph, I know you're just trying to lift my spirits, but believe me, you're the one who needs higher morale" Zeke replied, but a loud sound interrupted their conversation. It was the sound of the bell announcing the beginning of classes.

"Is it time already?"

"That's how it looks, shall we go?" asked Zeke.

"Yes, we should," Luis replied with a small smile.

The classes passed without being felt, the same boring classes that Zeke had to attend in order to receive his diploma, the same things repeated over and over again, nothing was changed. But after the class ended, Zeke met Luis once again in front of the university.

"It was pretty interesting I could say"

"For someone who has just come to town and this is his first day in college, everything seems interesting to you"

"What do you mean, Zeke, didn't you find it interesting?"

"I've listened to these courses dozens of times, so I've come to know them word by word, at some point it gets boring to hear them over and over again"

"Well then? Why do you still come to summer classes if you already know them all?"

"Normally I would say I do it because that's how a model student does it" he said, then made a small pause "But I'm tired of that excuse too"

"Then why are you doing it?"

"I'll tell you after we reach the library," Zeke replied, hesitating a little.

"Another session?"

"You guessed it"

The two arrived at the library, and found a free table in a slightly more secluded area where they could talk about more private matters.

"You know Luis, I don't know what life you used to live, but for me, sometimes it's very quiet at my place, so quiet that it gets noisy…" Zeke said in a low voice "I'm not a person who usually goes out of the house, or does group activities with other people, but if I don't do it, I can't work, if I don't work I can't earn money, and if I don't have money I can't pay my monthly expenses. So I have to integrate into society as much as I can."

"Zeke...I can't necessarily say I understand how you feel, because I haven't experienced anything like it, my situation is different. I am a person with high academic skills, and I used to travel quite a bit, sometimes even to academies abroad to perfect these skills. I used to do that while Herrler was still working as a police chief"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, can you repeat? Did you just said police chief? Mr.Herrler?" asked Zeke, very amazed.

"Yes, didn't you know that he was a police chief before being a teacher?"

"No" he instantly replied "Should I have known?"

"Hmm, not necessarily" Luis said "But I assume that if you were that close, you would know more about each other. In a way, I understand why he didn't tell you, he doesn't really like talking about the moments spent in the police"

"Did something happen, or…?"

"A particular event, but I would not want to go into this topic,...he will tell you at the right time if he wants you to know."

"Yes, I think that's the right way..." Zeke said while being interrupted by his ringing phone "Please excuse me for a moment Luis"

"No problem"

Zeke picked up his phone and stepped back a little to answer "Yes Yuki?" he said after answering.

"Are you free today?"

"To be honest…" he replied "I'd say no, I kind of want to sleep after last night…"

"So, you're free, nice, I will wait you in front of the university" Yuki said, intentionally ignoring what Zeke told her.

"I don't even know why you asked me if I was free if you were going to schedule everything anyway..."

"Ok see you tonight" she said before closing the call

"This girl, what am I doing with her?" he said as he sighed.

Zeke returned to Luis to begin the session.

"Problems in paradise?" said Luis.

"If this is paradise, I'd rather go to Hell"

"A friend of yours?"

"Hard to explain…but…" Zeke replied, but then he took a small pause, and he realized he has already spent a lot of time with Yuki, it's been almost a month since they met "You're right, she's my friend" he then said out loud.

"She?" asked Luis "Hmm, it's getting interesting. "Tell me more, who's this girl? Is she beautiful? Smart? Tall? Does she have big boo...?" Luis tried to ask, but Zeke instantly shut him down. Nevertheless, Luis's words made Zeke's cheeks change their tone, remembering only one thing 'D Cup'

"LET'S NOT GET INTO SUCH DETAILS, SHALL WE?" he yelled full of embarrassment, which made Luis burst out laughing. Zeke took a moment to calm down a little, before he realized something.

"But you're right, she's indeed very beautiful" he replied to Luis "I can say that she is also very smart, in fact, she teaches me a lot of things that I will definitely have to know as soon as possible, she's not that tall either, she reaches approximately in my neck area"

"Oh? And what does she did in the neck area?" Luis asked again, teasing Zeke.

"Actually I think the Yuki topic is enough for now" he replied, all as red as a tomato.

"Oh, so her name is Yuki. Honestly, I support you in this, even if I don't know her, the way you talk about her says it all"

"You get it wrong, Yuki my relationship with Yuki is not that kind of relationship"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah that's what everyone says, this is how it all starts, with small steps"

"Mr.Herrler said the same thing. I guess like father, like son…" said Zeke to himself "Anyway, shall we start?" He then said out loud to Luis, to which Luis agreed.

About two hours passed, and the two were still in the library. This session seems to have gone even better than the first.

"I still can't believe what a good student you are, Zeke," Luis remarked.

"Oh please, with each session, I start to believe you're smarter than me"

"That impossible, you're just modest now"

"Neah, It's just…" Zeke was about to say, before being interrupted by his phone ringing.

"Sorry, I have to answer," he told Luis.

"No problem"

"Yes Yuki?"

"Does it take much longer?" Yuki said with a bored voice "I've already arrived in front of the school, how long does it take to be ready?

"Are you already here? Ok, it won't take long, we're almost done, we just have to pack up and come out the library"

"'We'?" she instantly asked with a scared voice.

"Yes, I'm with Luis, you will enjoy meeting him" Zeke replied, to which Yuki closed the call.

"Huh? Did I said something wrong?" Zeke wondered.

"Weak temperament?" asked Luis.

"You can't even imagine"

"Oh man, I'm sorry for you then" Luis said, patting Zeke's shoulder.

"Yes...I'm sorry for me too...let's hurry, I wouldn't want to be sent to Hell by her anyway"

The two left the library and were on their way out of school. Here, in front of the gate, there is a young lady, extremely beautifully dressed. She was wearing a knee-length red dress. On it appeared very beautiful black floral decorations that gave an elegant air to the dress. The dress was accompanied by two more essential components, the hat that was in theme with it and the floral decorations on it, and the small, red, elegant purse she wore on her left shoulder.

"Oh, you finally thought about appearing," she said to him.

"She really looks great" Zeke said to himself "Anyway, before we move on, I want to introduce you, Yuki, this is Luis, the son of Mr. Herrler, whom you met a few weeks ago. He is a very intelligent and capable boy, Luis, she's Yuki, and she's my friend, as I told you, she's a very intelligent person, and she always likes to always surprise me with her plans"

"Nice to meet you Yuki, I'm Luis" he said, smiling as he reached for a formal handshake.

"Y…yeah, I'm Yuki...same here" she replied, awkwardly shaking his hand.

"You really didn't lie when you said she was very beautiful" Luis told Zeke, which made both him and Yuki blush.

"Huh?" said Yuki, seeming angry while approaching Zeke "So you made a habit of talking to people about how beautiful I am?" she said after that in a much more sensual tone "Instead of telling me directly? How cowardly can you be Zeke?" she whispered in his ear.

"Can you please stop teasing me?" he replied.

Yuki burst out laughing "Of course I can, anything for my little fan ❣"

Zeke looked at Luis, with an expression of 'What did you get me into?' on his face. Luis understood what he was saying and responded with a hand gesture and a smile on his face 'I wish you good luck' could be read on his face.

"We should leave now" Yuki said.

"Yes…we should, before you decide to team up against me" Zeke replied.

"Oh, but we would never do such a thing, would we, Yuki?" Luis said, winking at her.

"Right, we would never" she replied with a smug smile.

"What did I do to deserve that?" Zeke asked himself.

After saying their goodbyes to Luis, Zeke and Yuki walked out of the university. After they were further away from school and in a safer place to talk, Zeke asked Yuki why she dressed up so elegantly, at which she simply replied with "You'll see when we get here".

As they moved further away, Zeke noticed a thing, the direction they were heading was in a different direction than the normal route they had to take to get out of the city. Zeke asked Yuki again, where they were going, but she didn't answer, she just said "You'll see when we get here".

The two arrived in a newly built area in Paxton. As they headed in a certain direction, the two passed by various stores of all kinds, from clothing stores to grocery stores. At one point they passed a cinema, and Zeke was still walking around ignoring what was around him when he suddenly heard something behind him.

"Hello, I have a reservation today, on the name Yuki" He turned and saw Yuki standing in front of the cash register of the movie theater, and was indeed very surprised.

"What are we doing here?" he asked "I thought we're going to train today"

"That's what we're gonna do"

"Huh, and how are we going to do that at a movie theater?"

"I'll show you, let's hurry, the movie is about to start" she said, grabbing Zeke's hand and dragging him inside the cinema, and about two hours later, the movie ended. Even after two hours, Zeke was still surprised and confused by Yuki's actions, but he decided not to say anything and just enjoy himself as long as he could.

"The movie was actually very nice," he remarked.

"It was, wasn't it?" Yuki replied with a smile "Now let's go to the next place"

"Next place?" Zeke asked, confused "Shouldn't we train?"

"Oh c'mon, if you're gonna behave like this on a real date, no girl will ever like you"

"Huh?! What do you mean?"

"Nothing, nothing, just follow me, we still have a lot to do," she said, grabbing his hand again, dragging him after her.

Several hours passed and it was already night outside. The two went through a lot of places in the new area, to the pet stores, where they admired the little creatures you could adopt. Yuki even tried to adopt a puppy, but Zeke shut her off, telling her she doesn't have a place where she could keep it.

They went through the clothing stores, where Yuki spent half their time trying almost the entire shop, and asking Zeke for feedback, they went to a few toy stores, where Zeke won a teddy bear that he gave to Yuki, because he had nothing to do with it, action that made Yuki very happy. In the end, the last stop was a newly opened terrace.

After spending a few hours together , having fun, Yuki asked Zeke how he felt about their 'date'.

"Wait, date?" he asked, embarrassed and confused, which made Yuki laugh.

"You really are a phenomenon, Zeke" she said laughing, then in a very low voice she said "You're such a thick-headed" smiling at him, but he didn't heard what she said in the end.

"To be honest, it was funny, but I don't understand why you decided to organize all this instead of training" he replied, which made Yuki silent for a couple of seconds.

She avoided looking him in the eyes, she chewed endlessly on the drink the waiter had just brought.

"Take it as an 'I'm sorry'" she said in the end, with a low and soft voice.

"What did you said?"

"Ahh" she sighed "Look Zeke, I've done all of this for you today, to say…I'm sorry"

"I don't really understand, sorry for what?"

"For everything" she replied "I'm sorry for calling you to train in the middle of the night…I'm sorry for putting you in danger in the battle with Hals…I'm sorry for taking for chance to a normal life by giving you these powers…I'm sorry that I entered your life without you even wanti…"

"That's enough!" Zeke replied on a serious tone, shutting her off "That's enough Yuki…please don't say anything more"

"Zeke…" she said while raising her head and looking straight in Zeke's eyes. "All I want to say is that, I still don't fully understand human's feelings, I feel really bad because I dragged you into this and I don't know how to fully apologize, that's all I can do right now…"

"Yuki, do you remember when you asked me if I was a demon?" he asked her, to which she nodded.

"Good, then I'm going to ask you this, are you sure you're now a human?"

"Huh?" she replied confused "Why makes you think that's the case?"

"Because what you just did is very nice" he replied "It's very 'human'. As for the fact that you put me in all this, don't try to blame yourself for it, because it's not your fault"

"What do you mean?!" she replied in a hurry "How could it not be my fault? Because of me…you now have these cursed powers…"

"YUKI!" he yelled, interrupting her "Please…just don't think this way anymore…Now we have to focus on how I can control my powers, rather than who is to blame for all this. Stop blaming yourself for this situation, it's pointless, I'm not going to blame you for this, so just stop it…" he said then looked down, and continued in a silent, trembeling voice "After all, you have no idea what a wonderful gift you have given me…"

Yuki looked Zeke in the eyes, she wanted to say something, but the words simply did not come out of her mouth "What am I doing…? This didn't happen before…Zeke…you are so different from what he was…I'm so sorry that I compared you to someone like him…" she said to herself.

"Yuki" Zeke said in the end, making her recover from the world of thoughts.

"YES!?" she asked in an instant, wincing at once.

"You just don't realize yet…but if this will continue, one day, I think I will be able to tell you everything, I have a feeling this is the case" he said, his face slowly turning red.

"W…WHY ARE YOU BLUSHING BRAINLESS MONKEY?" she replied stammering, but when Zeke looked up at her, she was also red.

At that moment, Zeke burst out laughing, making Yuki a bit irritated. "Why are you laughing?" she asked.

"I'm just amazed, how sometimes you could easily tease me in some ways, but when it comes to small thinks like this, it's too much even for you, hahaha"

"You little…" she said clenching her fists in frustration and nervousness.

"But Yuki"

"WHAT?!" she replied, almost yelling.

"Thank you?" Zeke said in a serious tone, with a gentle smile on his face.

"Huh?"

"You don't understand, but what you did for me is much more important than you could ever imagine, so honestly, thank you"

"Y…Y…" she tried to say, becoming more embarrassed with her checks already being as red as blood "You're welcome…" she ends up saying, looking away from him.