The Earth After Rebirth

"Mm?" Kiro said dumbfounded.

"The game. Asgard Online. Every world announcement was about you two. The forums are in chaos."

"Oh? Is that so..." Kiro said, taken aback, still had no idea what else to say.

"Please don\'t shout it, I doubt I want anybody else to know." Hiro quickly said.

"Do I look like someone who would do that?"

"You do." The boys both said, at the same time, without batting an eye.

She rolled her eyes, "how did you get an S ranked quest?"

"Luck, I guess," Kiro said and he wasn\'t exactly lying, it was a B ranked quest at first and changed during the quest.

"Is the the quest re-doable?"

"Nope."

"How do you know?" She eyed them suspiciously.

"Go to the beginner\'s training ground, you\'ll see that Wilace\'s wife is there." Hiro replied.

"Oh, bummer. I won\'t be able to go back to beginners village. I\'ve already surpassed level 20."

This girl had sat at their table every meal for days. She never spoke a word. Who would\'ve guessed she was this talkative.

They were shocked by more than one thing. This girl didn\'t even seem like a gamer. But turns out she was a game addicted teenager, just like them.

"What do you play as?" Kiro asked her.

"Elf. Archer. You?"

"Dwarf Craftsman, Dreki Sage." They said, almost at the same time.

"Are you guys telepathic or something."

"No." again, they said at the same time.

"That\'s not helping your case."

Kiro noticed a smile appear on her face but as quick as it was to appear, it disappeared. Which was too bad, in Kiro\'s opinion, she had a nice smile.

"You don\'t avoid us like the plague like your peers. Why\'s that?" Kiro asked her.

"I don\'t care about stuff like that. Its my family\'s money. Not my money. Anyway, wanna join my family\'s guild?"

"Nah, we won\'t join any guilds. But you can hire us as mercenaries." Kiro told her.

She nodded vigorously.

He then turned to his friend, "I think I\'m gonna change my in-game name from Kiro to my surname or something."

"Waynworth?" He said loudly.

"Don\'t yell it. The idea is for people not to know." Kiro scolded him.

"She will." he pointed at the pale girl. "And to be honest, that\'s not fair, why do you get to have a switcheroo and I don\'t."

"Well you could mix up \'Misaki Hiroto.\' Something like Himi?"

"Stop you suck at this!"

"Akiro then?"

His eyes turned into stars, he nodded while nothing could come out. While Hiro was having his moment, of receiving his first ever nickname from a friend. Kiro could see someone walking towards them at the corner of his eye. He recognised him as one of the brats that bullied him.

His heart skipped a beat in fear. This scoundrel really left a mark on him. And this pompous ass did something laughable, he bowed to the pale girl.

"Isla," he spoke.

Kiro snorted. "This brat is so pretentious!" He said to Hiro, enough to be heard.

He gave him an ice cold look, Kiro didn\'t back down he gave one right back. That made him look away. As much as Kiro\'s heart wanted him to run and get swallowed by the earth, he wouldn\'t be worth anything if he showed it.

\'I\'ll stand up for myself and Hiro no matter how scared I am.\' He made a mental note, as if to strengthen his resolve.

The atmosphere at their table was weird and unbearable. It was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Hiro gestured them to leave, Kiro gestured for him to stay seated. Not because he was afraid his legs would give out or anything.

The pale girl, no, Isla looked up at him.

"Isaac," she said simply.

Then Isaac went on a rant. It was as if the feelings were bottled up for a long time.

"Why are you seated here? There\'s a good table over there with us?"

"And what makes a table good exactly?"

"Huh? Because it\'s not infested with hoodlums like those two. Let\'s go, you\'ll dirty yourself."

"Isaac, we are not friends. Our parents may do business but that doesn\'t make us friends. You\'re a pathetic human being. You think I don\'t know the bullying you do around this school? Acting like you own everything," she said coolly. She never raised her voice once.

Isaac was now red in the face. He couldn\'t comprehend what was happening. Clearly he\'s a kid who has never been told no.

"To think you\'d defend these rats, these savages–"

Hiro was red at this point, not the ear tip blushing red. But the whole face to neck i\'m going to kill you red. Yes, he was going explode with anger.

Kiro put his hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down and looked up at Isaac.

"Oi, don\'t call us savages." He was just saying at this point, they\'ve been called worse.

Isaac just looked at him and sneered. Grabbed Isla\'s hand and tried yanking it. Kiro got up so fast. He didn\'t know what he was thinking either.

\'Don\'t get me wrong I am not trying to defend her or anything,\' he said as if to convince himself while putting himself between Isla and Isaac.

He got so close to him, their noses were almost touching, his eyes straight to his. With a look that said \'Get lost or I\'ll blind you.\' Isaac was taken aback.

Nobody in the cafeteria could see it but Kiro did, his eyes told him everything, the kid pretended to be the predator when he was nothing more than prey. He may have pissed his pants with Kiro\'s glare, but he did walk away without saying anything.

Kiro sat down, and sighed. "Pheew! That was close, I almost beat him senseless. I would\'ve been expelled for sure. My little brother would\'ve killed me before my mum could."

The cafeteria was so quiet when he said this, they were still processing what had just happened. At his nonchalant words, the cafeteria roared with laughter.

"Dude that was so badass," Hiro said.

"Thank you," Isla said.

"I\'m Isla Silva by the way." She held out her hand.

This was really interesting. In his past life He never actually met her. He obviously saw her around the campus and was quite smitten by her, but they were never at close approximation with each other.

Let alone being on a first name basis. He never met Hiro either. Of course in his past life he lacked so much confidence that Isla wouldn\'t have thought twice looking at him.

"I\'m nice to meet you—" He realised what he had just done. He wished the earth would swallow him whole.

Isla giggled, it was cute.

"Waynworth Kiro." He cleared his throat and extended his hand.

Her hand then went over to Hiro.

"Misaki Hiroto." Hiro shook her hand. "But you can call me Hiro."

She got up to leave, but turned and said, aloud.

"Oh by the way, changing your names, Kiro and Hiro in-game isn\'t going to do much. Since your faces won\'t change." She turned and left.

At that the many that heard her caused chaos. All were trying to get a look at this Hiro and Kiro of Asgard Online.

"What the hell was she trying to do!" Kiro couldn\'t help but be a little frustrated.

She turned back one last time, and gave them a \'I\'m sorry\' face.

They quickly tried to slip out.