Chapter 8 - Starting A New Life

"So… this is my life… All in this suitcase." Red says, standing over at the open suitcase lying on his hospital bed.

"Yes. Well. Your butler suits and leather shoes are still at the young master's house, but yeah, these are all the things I found in your quarters." Kenji, the man that Junichi sent over with Red's stuff, says.

"I really didn't have a life." Red says, feeling bad for the original Red.

"From what I saw working together with you, that's about right." Kenji says.

"So… Sleepwear, sportswear. That's all I wore aside from my butler uniform?" Red asks.

"Yes." Kenji nods.

"I had no identity… Wait. Was I a modern-day slave or something?" Red jokes.

"Haha. No. But with the way you lived, you might as well have been, only a self-imposed one. You also always refused gifts from the young master and other people." Kenji says.

"Huh… what was wrong with me?" Red shakes his head as he moves on to the documents.

"Well. At least this assures me that I'm a legal citizen of this country." He says as he browses through the original Red's bank book, adoption papers, and driver's licenses.

"Huh. That's strange. Having a car license is a given for a butler… But why do I have a motorcycle license?" Red asks.

"It's the young master's hobby. He forced you to get one yourself. Oh. He actually wants you to have one of his bikes. It's parked in the lot below." Kenji explains.

"That's generous. The old me would have refused it." Red says.

"Heh heh." Kenji can only chuckle at the comment.

"Yeah. I somehow feel that I can ride one…" Red feigns.

"Anyways. I learned nothing about myself aside from liking comfy clothes." He says as he closes the suitcase.

"Okay. I'm done here. Is there anything you want to pass on to the young master?" Kenji asks.

"Nah. I'm good. Just tell him that I'll call when I get discharged." Red says.

"Okay. How about we drink together when you get discharged? You always refused to hang out with me before." Kenji says.

"Alright. I will." Red says. With that Kenji leaves the room.

As soon as Kenji leaves the room, Red's amicable face changes to a serious one. He then looks at an out of place screw head on the hinge of the suitcase. During Kenji's visit, Red caught him taking multiple glances at that certain screw head.

*zzmmm* Red then focuses his spiritual sense to the particular button and is amused at what he finds.

'Tiny… and electronic…' Red scoffs, figuring out that the screw is either a tracking device or a listening device like the ones he read on the internet. He then he closes the suitcase before storing it at the corner of his room, deciding keep the bug for now, out of earshot.

"As for now…" Red locks his room's door, goes back to his bed, and takes out the small pocket knife Kaoru randomly gave him.

He then rolls up the sleeves of his hospital pajamas as he lies back down on his bed with the headrest raised for his back to rest on. With the knife he carefully and stably starts carving on the skin on his arms; deep enough to break skin, but shallow enough to only leak small drops of blood. As if not feeling pain, he quickly gets immersed in his work.

.

Two hours later, Red is holding his arms in front of his face, satisfied at how they look.

The upper part of each of his forearms, is covered with seals as if wrapped with them; the fine lines and the circles in it were as if drawn with blood. Red's satisfaction with his work however, is short-lived and he gets out of bed and heads to the bathroom and washes his arms.

With the blood now washed, the seals now look very subtle and is nigh unnoticeable unless one looks very closely. He looks at them again as he walks out of the bathroom, and he sighs in disappointment.

"All that work for only four cubic meters of space. " Red smiles bitterly.

"But enough for now, I guess. Once I find a suitable gem stone or metal that can conduct spiritual energy, I'll make a storage space then." He can only accept his situation.

To test his seal, he opens his suitcase once again and takes out all his belongings from it. He then applies spiritual energy to the seal on his left arm, before touching a pair of shoes. The pair of shoes suddenly disappear with no trace left behind.

Red nods in satisfaction and moves on and does same things with all the rest of the things from the suitcase and they too disappear, just like the shoes did.

He then puts his left palm to the direction of the suitcase and he flares spiritual energy once again to his left arm's seal. Soon, the things that were gone all pop back up again all at once, as if they never went anywhere.

"Perfect." Red nods.

He then proceeds to test the seal on his right arm and soon, he is satisfied that they work just as well as the one on his left.

"Too bad, I cannot store anything living thing… Not even plants. Oh well. Four cubic meters more than enough for my needs for now." Red consoles himself.

~

A few days later. Junichi's Penthouse - Suginami

"Is this about Red?" Junichi asks immediately as Kenji walks in his study. He has sent his most trusted bodyguard on a long errand.

"Yes, sir." Kenji says, ready to report.

"*Nod*" Junichi gestures him to begin.

The bodyguard hesitates at first before, "Sir… I lost him.", reporting.

"WHAT?!" Junichi abruptly stands up from his chair out of surprise and anger, toppling the documents on his desk.

"I have no excuses, sir." Kenji can only look down at the floor.

Looking at the genuinely dejected posture of his trusted man, Junichi too can only accept the failure.

"What exactly happened?" Junichi asks as he sits back down.

"Like you ordered, I followed him right after he was discharged. He immediately took off with the bike you gave him. At first, it was no problem and I followed him for a few blocks. Suddenly, he took a turn on some alley somewhere in Ogikubo. That's when I lost him. His bike is more mobile than my car in such place so, I had no choice but to immediately park the car and chase him on foot." Kenji reports.

"And you didn't find him?" Junichi says.

"Yes." Kenji simply nods.

"You can run faster than a bike." Junichi says.

"Yes. But he disappeared right at that alley. No signs of him, and no signs of his motorcycle." Kenji says.

"The tracking device?" Junichi asks.

"He knew about it all along." Kenji sighs.

"…" Junichi is stunned.

"I used it to trace him. But what I found instead, halfway through the alley, inside a butcher shop, is his suitcase, empty." Kenji explains.

"Empty? ..." Junichi asks.

"Yes. Empty. He must have found the tracking device very early on, and prepared how to ditch me." Kenji concludes.

"*sigh*… How is his change so big?" Junichi takes out his phone and dials Red's number, and switches the phone to speaker mode.

/*ring* *ring* Hello Junichi!~/ Red answers in a happy tone.

"Hey Red. Where are you?" Junichi asks, already knowing that the call is about the tracking device. Kenji too, is curious.

/Secret!~ Hey. Did Kenji run back to you crying?/ Red asks.

Kenji looks down in embarrassment, while Junichi is mildly amused at Red's words and tone.

"He's here. Well. First of all. I apologize for putting a tracker on you. I'm just worried, that's all." Junichi says.

/It's understand. But you don't have to either. Hey. You didn't bug my phone too, right?/ Red asks.

"No. Of course not." Junichi denies, honestly.

/Good. Well. Don't worry about me anymore. Let me tell you what I've learned about myself since I woke up... I must have great attention to detail even before that incident, right?/ Red asks.

"Yes. You were, and still are. Must have been how you found our bug." Junichi says.

/Yeah. I'm also oddly repulsed by unsafe things. Sharp table corners, crossing the street, even taking an escalator. I must have been obsessed with safety?/ Red says.

"That's right." Junichi confirms.

/And I still am. So don't worry about me. I can take care of myself. When I said I want to start a life, I also want to avoid anyone looking over my shoulder./ Red says.

"Well. At least call every once in a while. I'm gonna be curious what you're up to."

/I will. And, you won't have the time to hang out with me anyway. Now that you're too busy. Anyways. Goodbye for now./ With that, Red drops the call.

"I like him better now." Kenji says.

"*sigh* me too. But he's become troublesome too." Junichi shakes his head.

~~~

Nerima City 9 PM

*beep* *beep* *beep* *clack* *shut*

Red enters his newly purchased apartment unit after having a sumptuous dinner nearby.

A few days ago, right after Kaoru handed him the identity she made for him, Red immediately snuck out of the hospital, and subsequently out of Suginami, to the neighboring Nerima to take in the sights. Liking the calming and suburban atmosphere of the city, he immediately looked for and rented an apartment.

"Nice… Nice… Nice…~" As he walks to his terrace, Red cannot help but giggle seeing that the plants he purchased earlier now look more beautiful and vibrant compared to how they were before he brought them home earlier in the morning.

"But… strange… It's as if these plants are just waiting to eat spiritual energy. Is it because this world has thin spiritual energy in the atmosphere?" Red rubs his chin in thought.

The plants that Red purchased, while ordinary, oddly have the same structure as some of the rarest or most versatile herbs he encountered in the endless realms.

"Mystery for another day…" Red drops the matter.

"Thankfully, my spiritual energy is just as pure as natural spiritual energy. It is edible to them." After he infused spiritual energy on the plants, they became Mid Mortal Tier spiritual herbs; much better than ordinary plants, but useless to beings below pseudo immortal level.

*snap* *chew* Red cuts off a blade of grass from one of the plants and start chewing on it.

"Hmm… Cold." Red is pleased as a feeling of refreshment washes over him.

"This is good enough to relieve muscle pains in mortals." Red notes in his head.

He then proceeds to do the same thing with the other plants; cutting off grass, leaves, or flowers, and chewing on them to confirm his theories about their effects.

"Good. This is good." Red is very pleased with himself after documenting the plants' effects, matching his guesses.

He then looks at the sky.

"Hmm… damn it." Red is about to start cultivating again but the clouds are obstructing the moon.

"I still have a third of my energy left. What do I do?" He suddenly remembers something.

"I ditched Kenji easily, but the other guy was quite persistent. Must have been his superioris ability. He … Must have been Kaoru's?" Red concludes.

He then pulls out his phone and dials a number.

/*ring* *ring* Hello?/ Kaoru, to Red's surprise answers immediately.

"Kaoru-chan. I know we agreed that we're now strangers since you got out of the hospital. But hey, you left me your phone number." Red begins.

/Oji-chan! How are you? I heard you were discharged?/ Kaoru says, feigning a pleasantly surprised tone.

While Red finds her act adorable, he cannot help but scoff.

"I'm good~ … But… Tell me I wasn't being paranoid." He says.

/What do you mean?/ Kaoru asks, confusion present in her voice.

"There's this man who tried following me since I got discharged. Is he yours?" Red asks.

/…/ Kaoru is too stunned to answer.

"Kaoru. I've been running away from people for a long time now. I know a tail when I see one." Red says.

/*sigh* Yes. He's my man./ Kaoru finally admits.

"Well. I hope you don't do that anymore, Kaoru." Red says.

/I have to know something first.. Where did the real Red go?/ Kaoru asks.