Chapter 16 Homeless Fiend

"You homeless fiend! Told you to wake up!"

"Ugh. Pretty sure you didn't, Big Bro."

"Yeah-yeah… You, uh, you didn't, uh, Big Bro!"

"Don't matter! You homeless asshole! Nutjob! Shithead! You… wake up!"

You heard them. All I thought was: What the hell? What's going down? Am I attacked? Enemies? Where? My body aches! Crap! And they would kick me again. "Ugh!"

"'Bout time you stood up to kiss my feet, heh! There… have it at'cha." I wriggled, struggling to the ground. Two more kicks landed on my stomach and legs. Sweaty, and startled, I still had to make out of the situation. As it was my first time living something so utterly disgracious, and my first time waking up from a night of sleep, also, it took me longer than necessary to, at last, properly react to what was happening. A shoe was brought to my face. "There there~ Now you can kiss it—Ugh! Help me, Bro-Ther-Thieves!"

"Ugyah!"

"I, uh, B-Big Bro, uh, I…!"

I grabbed at the enemy's feet and yanked it up. A boy no older than seventeen fell on his butt, before crawling away from me in panic. I was covered in sweat on the outside, and covered in aching muscles on the inside. Slowly, I put one hand before the other and heaved myself up. When I did so, I threw two bloodshot eyes at the three individuals who had dared disturb my slumber.

All three of them were boys. The youngest among the three, no older than ten, probably, let out another weird cry. "Th-The homeless guy's scary!" His older brother followed after him. "Uh…!" He said nothing. Facing the furious, stiff beast that had just awoken from its sleep, the two of them, in the dim light of dawn, were as if devoured by the beast's shadow. And the crawling oldest boy, who managed to, in his haste, back down to where his younger brothers were, suddenly jumped to his feet, "Don't show your fears!" and smacked his two brothers on the head. "We're so sorry, Big Bro!" twice echoed.

Somehow, the big brother had enough time to organize his two fellows into the weirdest pose, and… "We are…!" They all exchanged knowing looks before they nodded. "...The three Bro-Ther-Thieves! Know us! Fear us! And give us all your monies!" All were proud of their presentation. But then the big brother shook his head. "You there! You were late! You have to say it just like I say it, Tiny Bro!"

"U-Ugyah! Sir yes sir!"

"We'll do it again!"

"D-Do we have to, uh… Big, uh, Bro, uh?"

If you guys don’t read this on NOvElB(i)n(.)cOm and read somewhere else, Ain will HWUNT u and KWILL you!

"W-We do!"

And there, as I just observed their surreal trio, with my eyes still flaming, a deep frown marked on my face, they gave their presentation a redo. Each striking the weirdest pose ever, proudly grinning like mad, they insisted again: "Bro-Ther-Thieves!"

"There we did it right!"

It was quite ridiculous. Surely, after their attack, followed by whatever nonsense it was they presented to me at present, they would explain to me this was just a prank, all of it is recorded, and point far off at the hidden camera among some of the trash of this disgusting place, right? Yeah, no. That didn't happen. They were seriously assaulting me with... that attitude.

So anyway, what was that kick to my ribs for? Was that an enemy, then? I still needed an explanation, didn't I? Or should I just rush in to make a kill? Man, life could be complicated at times. From here on out, they just blatantly stared at me, with dumbfounded looks. Young people sure looked dumb, nowadays.

I shook my head, calming down a little, and not so on alert anymore. Exchanging glances with the bigger one of them, I urged him to speak of his business with me. I was pretty sure they didn't think me a monster. That meant they didn't attack me for the same reason as most other people did. What was it then? Staring him down with the iciest eyes and deepest frown of disgust, I expected an answer. The sweaty dark bangs dangling on my forehead were pushed backward. I said no words.

He certainly did meet my glare, but he seemed gutless. Undoing his dumb pose, he was looking quite satisfied, though. His arms were now crossed upon his chest. Quickly, he turned back to his brothers—"You dummies! You only undo the pose after I, your oh-so-great leader, cross my arms! That was in the script, wasn't it?!" That statement being uttered, they both jumped in surprise. They were so scared they almost lost their balance. With no further delay, they gained back their composure (if one could even call that a composure), deeply bowing to their older brother. "We're very sorry, Big Bro!" echoed twice, and I wondered "what the heck" again.

A deep sigh couldn't be helped from my mouth. But Big Bro complained again. After a long lecture, he stopped educating them. "I think I should go," I said. "See!? You dummies are messing it all up again! Damn it! That homeless bastard even has time to laugh at us! In his head or something! Laughs at us! ...Attack, my dummies! Attack, my soldiers!"

Thus, the little brothers undid their bowing and rushed at me. With cries of war and tilted heads, they really were going at it. I had a hard time due to my poisoning and a fight just broke out, so I struggled to get down to it, but I entered the improvised battle. Deeply inhaling, I totally forgot my pain—thanks to the Resistance to Poison skill, I think—and readied myself.

I lacked at least another twenty hours of sleep to be renewed and ridden the poisoning. I was in no condition to fight, but what could I do? After General Big Bro sent his dummies—no, soldiers to the front line, he darted back. Following his orders, the two soldiers rushed at me. My attention was drawn to the tiniest of them. "Hyah!" He was the one who cried a lot. His fists were clenched as they would help against the big, tough middle-aged man I was.

When he reached me, I just smacked his head down. He fell with a cough and stayed down there. What was that boy even doing? Was it all, really? With a hand, I quickly went down and picked the boy up by his neck. General Big Bro cursed to himself. Lifting him up like a bag of food, I cocked my head to the side. Another boy attacked, he came at my legs. When he tried to grab at them, I just nonchalantly kicked him to the side—the smarting pain in my head suddenly acted up, and the boy somehow managed to hold onto my legs. This time, the general nodded at his soldier's competence. I stumbled to the ground with a grunt. The pain increased and got me momentarily out… "Good job, dummies!" When I opened back my eyes, Big Bro was on top of me, a dagger in his hands, and pierced my heart.

Well. No comment about that. In less than a second, I felt drained of energy. My vision darkened and I was just… off. I wasn't worried. Or was I? What would happen from now on? You guessed it, another notification rang out, and you know the drill: The Receptacle was deemed defective. In order to 'ensure survival', for who knows what reason, I was tasked with finding a new Receptacle. Surprise, a new Receptacle was found already. The Dwelling State positive effect was issued.

"B-Big Bro! The Sleeping Dagger don't make an effect yet! He's still grabbin' at Tiny Bro strong…! What'll we do!? What'll happen to us!? The Sleeping Dagger don't just send, uh, them, uh, to, uh, sleep, right!? It kills them!"

"Sh-Shut up! 'Course it ain't sending 'em to sleep... it kills the bastards! I lied! We're hungry! That's enough reason! C-Come here, now, my lil' brother. You won't run your mouth, capiche?! Can't have the guards know 'bout that!"

"W-Won't…Hic…Won't never…Sob… I won't never!"

"Good. Now… you homeless freak. You! Fucking! Let! Go! Shit. What's with the guy? Hey! Can ya hear me?! Shit. Argh, c'mon! Fucking! Let! Go! Of Tiny Bro!"

"B-Big Bro…! Tiny Gob's choking to death! The, uh, guy won't let go!"

"W-W-W-W-W-Wait! Shut up! Look! W-What's that!? What's this thing!"

"B-Big Bro… there's a mon-mon-monster…!"

After a pause, they truly panicked. "D-Did ya take his things?!"

Going from there, their half-whispering voices grew fainter and fainter. They subconsciously stepped away from the monster.

"N-No!"

"You check him! Any pocket! Have any bag on 'im? I-I said you check him!"

"No!"

"You check him!"

"Th-There's a monster! No! I'm scared! You're scared too, Big Bro! You made us… do… We killed... What'll happen to us!? Tiny Bro is dead! Haaah!"

"W-Where're you runnin' off to!? Sh-Shit!"

They both ran away.