Henry had no issue in assimilating himself back into the social aspect of modern society. Though it had been quite some time since he had a proper conversation with an actual human, his social skills had not deteriorated. This was not the earth he knew but there were a lot of similarities, so he didn’t need to worry about any unfamiliar jargon or different terminology. He was able to get directions in no time at all by simply just asking around.
However, he did have troubles in other aspects. The air of the morning in this world was nauseating, to say the least. The honking of the cars stuck in traffic was nigh-unbearable. He had borrowed a face mask, a pair of earplugs, and a pair of sunglasses, just so he could dull his senses. With his enhanced senses, everything he felt was amplified. It truly dawned on him how polluted Earth was and as if he was part of nature, he was suffering from the pollution.
He had a burger and fries for breakfast. He had missed the taste of junk food and comfort food but only in his mind. His first taste of a burger in a long while ended with him throwing it up. It tasted awful to his tongue. He tasted not just the beef, the tomato slices, the pieces of lettuce, and the egg. He also tasted a large amount of chemicals put into the ingredients and it was worse than the taste of monsters' flesh.
I’m truly no human anymore…
Though he had long accepted that, things like these kept reminding him of what he once was. He had changed a lot and he would only continue to do so in the future.
He didn’t even bother trying the fries and just dumped everything into a bin. He bought the most organic food he could find and even those had their shares of chemicals but were not as intense as the burger and fries. Mineral water in bottles was fine. The chemicals did not bother him as much as he thought. Ironically, his meals became duller in this modern city than they were in Ulrum.
Henry was currently in a small library just around the corner of Chloe’s residence. He was there to dig up some information but not through books. He was here to borrow a computer to use, which this library had at an exorbitant rate of five dollars per hour. Since he wasn’t pressed for money, he didn’t not argue about the cost.
He typed “third and twenty-fourth street” into the search engine and millions of results presented themselves on pages. He navigated to the image section where photos of the street were in abundance. Most of the photos were taken by clout chasers of social media after the rumour of strange sightings around that particular street. Half of these photos were half-face selfies with obnoxious hashtags as the titles. Henry rolled his eyes and ignored all those redundant details.
“What are you looking for?” Nadea asked.
“Not sure,” Henry responded, clicking through photos one after another. “There must be something in these photos that can provide some sort of clue or hint.”
“Why would you think so?”
Henry stopped at a photo. He peered closer at it and went back to the previous photos. “Well, that was easy,” he said with a smile.
“You found something already?”
He enlarged up a photo, zooming in on a boy with dark brown ruffled hair and glasses who was standing in the background. “This guy here. He’s a person of interest.”
“Explain?”
“He’s in a lot of these photos, especially the wide-shot ones. He’s always there on the street, looking underneath the arch where the sewer entrance is.”
“Maybe he just enjoys loitering around that place?”
“Take a lot of this photo here. It’s the only one that captured his feet. He’s wearing boots and those boots are dirty as if he had walked across shit.”
“Ah, sharp eye, Henry. Good to know that I didn’t choose the wrong person as my champion.”
“Save your praise, Nadea. Praise human nature instead. These schemer-types, they just love to return to the crime scene in order to admire their handiwork.”
“Now we know the face of your suspect, how are you going to find him?” Nadea asked.
Henry didn’t need to do much. There were plenty of shady websites on the net that was meant for shady purposes. He used one of those sites and quickly tracked down the suspect’s identity. He was now browsing through the suspect’s personal information on his social media.
Hmm? What’s this?
Henry squinted his eyes as he came upon a piece of detail. If it could be believed, his suspect was in a relationship with one Chloe Lawson. He hit up the name Chloe Lawson on the same social media site and his suspicions were proven true. Chloe Lawson was the same Chloe he knew but according to her profile, she wasn’t in any relationship at all.
“Whoa,” Nadea exclaimed dryly. “Our suspect is the ex-boyfriend of the Chloe that you met? What are the odds?”
“I should have known. She did say I was the only superhuman she knew besides her ex. Her ex-boyfriend has superpowers as she does. He’s responsible for that hell portal… Well, this just made the investigation easier.”
Henry closed all the windows and left the computer to sleep. He had paid for an hour’s worth of time but he had only used it for around twenty minutes. But he didn’t mind. He had what he came for. Five bucks were nothing to him.
He left the library in a jiffy. He scurried down the streets with hastened steps. He made a sharp turn at a corner. Due to his haste and dampened senses, he failed to notice the fast-approaching presence of a girl with long black hair and glasses just around the corner. She was just as hasty as him and she also failed to notice his presence. He had a larger and sturdier physique compared to the girl. She bounced off of him and fell to the floor when she bumped into him.
“Ow!” the girl cried as her posterior hit the solid ground and the contents of her handbag spilt out.
“Are you alright?” Henry asked with urgency. He had barely budged when the girl ran into him and she was the only one wincing on the ground.
The girl, who was around Henry’s age, raised her head and glared. “Watch where you’re going, you stupid ass!” she snarled.
Henry had thought the girl looked lovely when he caught a good glance of her face but the words that gushed out of her lips warped his impression of her.
“Great. Just great,” the girl grumbled under her breath while she went about collecting the spilt contents of her handbag. “It’s just one fucking misfortune after another.”
Henry bent down to help but the girl slapped his hands away.
“Fuck off, mister! I don’t need your help!” she spat out all those profanities without even giving him a glance.
A deep irked frown formed on Henry’s face. “Mind your tone, miss. While it was my fault that I turned without looking, it was also your fault for not looking where you’re running.”
The girl rose to her feet after collecting all of her stuff. She got in front of Henry and jabbed a finger at his chest. “Don’t you dare take that tone with me, mister. Do you think I’m afraid of you? Do all men think that an ugly little girl like me is easily exploited? Do you!?”
His frown softened and his annoyance was replaced by confusion. “I did not say you are ugly or little, miss.” Now that she was close to him, he could smell the anguish, distress, sorrow, and anger oozing off her. Those scents of hers were heavy. Her heart was in great turmoil.
She clicked her tongue. “You don’t need to say anything. You men are all the same. I know what goes through your mind.” She scoffed. “Why am I even talking to you in the first place? Waste of my breath. Now, if you will excuse me, I’m in a hurry. So— argh!” she moaned and dropped to her knees, clutching her foot.
“Oh, this is terrible. Are you—”
“Don’t touch me!” The girl swatted Henry’s hands away.
“I was just trying to help.”
“I don’t need your help,” she said and tried to get up once more “Certainly not from a—” But her foot gave out immediately and she fell.
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Henry rushed in and cradled her before she touched the ground with one arm on the waist and the other arm on the back of her shoulders. With ease, he lifted her into his arms.
“W-what do you think you are doing!?” she stammered with her inquiry.
“What? You think I’m going to just let you fall and hit your head? Besides, you sprained your foot.”
“And whose fault do you think that is?”
“Mine,” Henry answered with a smile. “And I’m going to take responsibility for it.”
The girl grimaced. “Fucking unbelievable… You men are all the same…” But then, her grimace turned into a grin. “Fine. You’re going to take responsibility? Take me to a doctor now. You’ll be paying for the fees and you’ll be treating me to lunch.”
“Lunch?”
“Yes, lunch. What? Are you backing out on your words already? Are you that petty?”
“I fail to see how lunch is part of me taking responsibility.”
The girl grabbed Henry by the collar and pulled his face close to hers. “Take me to lunch or I’ll make your life a living hell.”
Henry felt his heart thumping as he breathed in more of her scent. Normally, he would have none of it but against this girl, he couldn’t reject her requests. “Of course, miss.”
“Yula. My name’s not Miss. It’s Yula. What’s yours?”
“Henry.”
“Hmm. At least your name is not as dim as your face.”
Henry found himself smiling warmly at her thorn-laced words. With the directions he got from Yula, he carried her in her arms and strode to the closest medical centre that was just a block away from the library. He was drawing glances from the passers-by but he didn’t mind. He could hail a cab but he didn’t think it would be worth it.
“Damn it, can’t you just hail a taxi or something?” Yula grumbled with her eyes closed. She was too embarrassed to meet the eyes of the passing pedestrians. “Are you trying to embarrass me to death?”
“It’s just a block down.”
“You idiot, that’s not what I’m trying to say. This is humiliating.”
“How so? You’re hurt and you can’t walk, so I’m carrying you.”
“Who the fuck does this, carrying a girl down a block? A girl you just met, no less.”
“I’m taking responsibility. Oh, and I must say, no, you are not heavy to me.”
“S-shut the hell up… I don’t care if I'm light or heavy to you.”
Henry chuckled at the blush he was seeing on her cheeks. Their exchanges of words were of no importance but somehow, Henry found it comforting. When he was talking with her, the pollution of the air and noise did not bother him as much. She was like his solace.
“Oh, dear me…” Nadea muttered.
“What’s wrong now?”
“You found a mate.”
Henry blinked. “I found a what?”
“A mate. You found a mate.”
Henry chuckled in his heart. “Alright, that’s hilarious. Stop joking now. What even makes you say that? Sure, I find her quite charming and amusing but—”
“You can’t view it from a human logical standpoint, Henry. You are a Dragon. The wavelength of her soul is very compatible with yours and so is her body.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Something like destiny, you could say. You two are meant to be together. To think you’ll find your first mate here out of all places.”
“First mate? Wait. Are you saying I will be getting more… mates?”
“Of course. That’s how Dragons are. Kinda like lions. A single alpha male a pack with multiple females.”
“Are you saying that I will inevitably acquire a harem?”
“Why do you sound so surprised? Surely you have thought about this right? Harem is part of the template, is it not?”
“Knowing a template and experiencing it are two different stories.”
“It is becoming one single story to you. Still, this is unprecedented. You are not even an adult yet but you have already sought out a mate.”
“I am not seeking any mate, damn it. And what do you mean by I’m not even an adult?”
“In Dragon years, you are still just a teenager. Dragons grow up fast but they grow old slowly. If we aren’t taking your human years into account, you are still just a teenager.”
“Alright, stop right there, Nadea.” Henry was rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I feel like I’m treading into deep waters. Can we stop here and talk about this when things have settled?”
Nadea giggled. “Fine by me.”