5 Chapter 4

After selling the magic stones, Nex earned quite the fortune so now he was going to do the next step, getting a house.

With the amount of money he now had, he could get a house almost in every part of the town so what he has to do now was only to choose where, since living in a high-class area will probably cause him to mingle with troublesome people, he set his way to more normal districts.

While he tours one of the districts, Nex suddenly froze and looked toward a certain direction, there, was a small apartment building that has on one of its windows a "for rent" sign. While unclear emotions raging in his eyes, Nex walks into the building.

***

In an empty of property, looked at each other, one was Nex who tried to look respectful although he was still wearing his weird clothes from before, the other was an extremely beautiful young lady that looked just past the early twenties, she had a clear black hair and blue, sapphire-like eyes, her body has matured perfectly with large chest and shapely bottom all the while keeping a thin waist, in other words, another top-level beauty!.

"So let me get, you, an A-rank Hunter, want to rent a shabby apartment and live in a mid-class neighborhood instead of a top-level villa in an exclusive compound full of luxury." concluded the young lady.

"Yes" answered Nex with a smile.

"Haa," she massaged her temples, "you know its suspicious with you popping out of nowhere and asking to rent the apartment like that right?"

"This…" Nex rubbed the back of his head, "is there any way for me to get your trust? I really want to live here."

Seeing the sincerity in his look, the young lady sighed and said: "start by telling me your backstory, I don't want to enter my building someone I do not even know the name of."

Having his face turn from hopeful to complicated, finally opened his mouth, "then let's start by my name, my name is Nexus but I prefer Nex, and about my past, there isn't a lot I can say. A lot of time ago when very young, I found myself agreeing to what was once my dream job but which soon after was found out to be a scam,"Nex had a face like he trying to not sink to melancholy," and from that moment my life turned to a nightmare, every day was a constant fight for survival without any chances for breaks. The ones who I thought of friends proved they actually the opposite and the ones that I thought of as enemies were found out as friends when it was too late. But luckily I grew strong along the way, strong enough to escape the reality I was trapped. And because of all that happened, I decided that I will live a normal life of peace and quiet, so can I please live here?. He finished with an honest face full of hope.

'If she is similar to the one I know, then she would probably sense that I'm speaking the truth and would start crying and comforting me.' thought Nex under his expression.

And indeed the face of the young lady turned soft, while she looked at him as if she is about to console him.

Nex sighed internally 'As I thought, she is the same type as the one I-'

"Get out."

"...huh?"

***

Sitting outside on the sidewalk Nex sighed with dumbfounded emotions.

'"You heard what I said, get out. Not only you are acting shady with your intention you also come out with a third-rate backstory that doesn't give real information of where you were or what you did in your past. only a full will not think you don't have some issues."' he remembered the words the young lady said with an angry face while she shooed him away with a broom.

'Since when did people with that type of soul would act that… fierce' but for some reason, he thought that it oddly suited this girl and even found it adorable.

He then quickly shook his head, 'these damn emotions its a bit more hard to control then I thought. Anyway, I thought I could do this slowly without her being aware, but it seems like I need to take a more direct approach.' thought while entering back to the building.

*Knock**Knock**Knock*

"Yes, what is it?"

Said the young lady while opening the door, only to have her face crumpled when she saw who stood behind it.

"Oh it's you, don't even if you a Hunter, the police-'"

"Listen to me for only one minute, and then if you want me to go, I will not bother you anymore," he said while looking into her eyes.

Staring at him back and seeing the seriousness in his eyes, the young lady sighed.

"You have one minute."

"Thank you," Nex smiled and then his face turned back serious and he began to speak.

"Did you ever feel like you aren't really connected to the rest of the world? feel like almost everything is an illusion?"

Just with those two simple questions, the young lady expression froze and she stared at him with shock.

"You-"

"Did you also," ignoring her, Nex continued, "when you were young, made people feel great pain every time you touched them? No, I think this also true for today if you don't keep your emotions under control."

These words were like a knife to her heart, she knew he was speaking the through but from the surprise, she couldn't even close her mouth.

Looking at her reaction, Nex expression softened as he finished: "I know what your condition is and if it won't get treated, it will start to hurt not only you but also the ones close to you, and that's the reason why I wanted to live here, because I wanted to help you and make sure you won't hurt anyone by mistake." after saying those words, Nex looked at her waiting for her reply.

The young lady stared at Nex with a complicated gaze until she finally sighed and entered back into her house, after the sound of a short conversation was heard, the door opened again and the young lady came out again.

"Let's speak about this in another place," she said shortly.

***

"I want you to tell me everything you know."

The young lady said while walking alongside Nex on the street.

Nodding, Nex begins to speak: "your situation has a few names in where I was, but if you ask me, I prefer to call it OverSoul," he stopped for a moment and then started to explain: "you see, we humans consist of two halves, the body, and the soul, the soul is our spiritual essence of what we are, while the body is the corporeal essence, and together they complement each other keep each other at balance."

He then looked at the young lady, "and your case is that you born with a unique soul that possess several special traits that can make you capable of great things, but unfortunately, in your case, the traits are too great in either quality or quantity and so the body can't handle the load and causes the soul to become unstable. And because of that, you feel like you aren't connected to reality or feel like your inside an illusion."

"Then what about causing pain to people by touch?"

Nex smiled, "that's because your soul radiated itself, and one of the thing souls are most sensitive to are other souls."

The young lady nodded and then asked, "you said that if I don't get treated I could hurt myself and others, how?"

Nex face became distant and he said slowly, "because the soul keeps growing stronger than the limit of the body thanks to the traits, at some point the soul, that constantly repressed herself to match the body, will explode and cause an explosion that can at the very least severely injure if not completely extinguish every soul in a few kilometers radius."

He then turned back to the young lady and said solemnly.

"And I can tell that you feel it, that your time is near."

The young lady, after hearing his words, instead of starting to cry and panic like someone else in her age, only turned slightly pale and sighed tiredly, "I had a feeling that something will happen, but I didn't dare to think that it will be that severe."

She then looked at the man beside her, "Nex right? Is that the only reason you wanted to help me so much?"

"So you figured out,"while smiling Nex replied, "yes indeed, aside from the obvious reason of not wanting to see a disaster on the level of nuclear magnitude, the main reason I wanted to help you without using more forceful methods was because one of the traits you have is similar to a child I once met."

"A child?"

"Yes," Nex said while his thought ran back to the past, "a very pure and lovely child. Back then when I first met her I was very young and naive and didn't know much about where I was, after learning about her condition I tried my best to help her but alas, I didn't have the proper knowledge and because of certain circumstances, it was already too late for her."

The young lady, hearing the last words felt something in her throat, "then…"

"Her soul exploded," Nex said simply, "and from that moment I made myself a decision, and that is that I would never let that happen to someone who doesn't deserve it again."

"Is this the only one? I feel like there is more to this story," she asked curiously.

Nex originally gloom face turned to a smile, "that is a story for another time, for now, let us focus on what that matter now."

He looked at the young lady, "if you want me to help you, then you have two options. One is that you let me place a seal on your soul that will limit your soul functions to a normal one, although you will still feel disconnected, it will be in a much smaller amount, the plus here is that you get to live a normal life of an ordinary person."

Hearing this, the young lady nodded, "And the other one?"

Nex smiled turned wider.

"I will help you get your body to reach a level where you can unleash the true potential of your soul and let yourself be much more than just connected with the rest of the world, but do know this once you agreed to this offer, you will never be just another person."

After this Nex finished, "these two are your options, you are free to pick whichever you want."

After thinking shortly the young lady asked, "can I have a proof of that so-called options?"

Hearing what she said, Nex nodded as if it is an obvious thing, "of course, let's begin from the first option, can you please close your eyes for a moment?"

Having decided to put some faith in his word, the young lady closed her eyes, and suddenly she felt a calming sensation as if her mind turned peaceful and quiet.

"Okay, you can open them back."

Opening her eyes the young lady froze, it wasn't what she saw, aside from getting a little clearer her vision hadn't changed by much, it was what she felt, something she didn't felt for years, her sense of being part of the world.

Although the great excitement that she had, she still kept her composure and looked back at Nex, "now the other options."

Nodding in approval, Nex opened his mouth, "close your eyes again."

Nodding back and then closing her eyes again, the young lady sensed that the calming sensation disappeared, and instead she felt that her mind started to brighten and become more balanced.

"Since I can't instantly increase your body level to match with your soul, I can only help your soul use its full potential for a short time."

She heard Nex voice as she started to get used to the changes that happened in her consciousness and finally she heard Nex say.

"You can open your eyes now."

At the moment she opened her eyes she was almost convinced that she entered a whole different world, she felt that before this she saw the world in a bad quality of black and white and only now did she truly experienced colors, and not only that she felt the same about her other senses again, when she was busy looking around she suddenly heard Nex speaking behind her.

"Pretty neat right? That's just the tip of what you can be capable of."

Turning around, the young lady felt like she forgot to breathe for a moment.

She already knew that Nex was very (very) handsome but for some reason, it felt like he had an aura around him that prevent people to actually notice that. But now, it was like she could see through that aura and see the real him, and the real him was the most handsome man she ever saw, with his perfect facial features and ideal body build, but most importantly the eyes, his silver eyes that although were full of signs of exhaustion and melancholy, still showed mainly optimism and expectation for the future.

"Well, what do you think?"

Still dazed from what she saw, Nex flashed to her a bright smile that made her wake up from that state and blush like a little kid who was caught.

After seeing that she is listening Nex then opened his mouth.

"So, have you made your choice?"