Chapter Text
He had done it, the war was over. They won— Cough, cough! Blood fell from his lips and seeped through his fingers. I don’t deserve to make this about myself. I just need the others to be safe. At least no one saw. Cale slowly pulled the dagger made of the World Tree’s branch out of his chest.
“Human..?”
Cale whipped his head around the moment he heard his youngest son’s voice, and there everyone was. His family.
“Dongsaeng.” Alberu’s expression showed anguish in a way Cale never saw before. “What did you do?”
“What needed to be done.” Those were the redhead’s last words before his vision began to blur and his head hit the ground. He heard the distant cries of his loved ones.
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Cale could feel the glaring sunlight through his eyelids. He pulled the soft blanket over his head, but something was off… The spot next to him was cold and he couldn’t feel the weight of his children on him anywhere.
Cale immediately shot up in a panic, he finally took a good look at the room he was in. The walls were the wrong colour, the furniture was too plain, the room was much smaller than what he was accustomed to, the sheets felt itchy, and everything was simply too modern.
Then it hit him; memories of his last interaction with family, the look on his children’s face of pure devastation. Why did they look like that? They’re safe now. Cale lifted his hand to cheek only to feel tears he didn’t know had fallen. He took a deep breath and stood up.
Cale spotted a wallet on the bedside table, the ID of this body was sticking out. The redhead picked up the ID, reading off the information. His name was still Cale Henituse, he’s thirty-eight, and lived in Gotham City.
“THAT MOTHERFUCKING GOD OF DEATH!” Of course he transported me to another universe. Cale loudly sighed. This was now his third world.
Cale turned his head and spotted a calendar hanging on the wall, it was currently September eighteenth on a Tuesday. Shit! He apparently had work today, and he definitely needed to change out of his pajamas. Cale looked in the mirror and he still had his signature, blood red, shoulder length hair, his reddish-brown eyes glimmered in the light, he was tall, lean, and appeared about the same as his time in Roan, just older.
He went through his closet to find something simple to wear. He put on a black, sleeveless shirt under a grey, off the shoulder sweater, along with a black cargo pants held up with a black, studded belt. Cale wore black, lace-up boots, plus silver necklaces, rings, and earrings. He decided to leave his hair down, too lazy to do anything with it since normally he had Ron, or the kids to do it for him.
He grabbed his phone and wallet off the bedside table; luckily, he wasn’t too out of touch with the modern world due to his time as Kim Rok Soo. He pulled up Google Maps and looked at the most recent location called ‘The Fragrance of Tea’, which sounded very familiar to another tea shop he knew…
He walked out the door, hoping he’ll get to his job on time without getting lost. Cale wasn’t paying much attention to his surroundings, but he still noticed all the grime and pollution littering the streets. Since Cale was too focused on his phone, he didn’t see all the eyes following his body.
A man behind him whistled loudly before exclaiming, “Looking good, pretty lady!”
Cale ignored the man, he couldn’t be talking to him, right?
“It’s not nice to ignore people, pretty lady.” The man became noticeably frustrated, and began to approach Cale.
The thirty-eight year old turned to face the man who seemed to have not showered in days, his hair was greasy, his clothes bore holes, and his breath reeked of booze. “I’m a man.” Cale said with a deadpan expression.
The man was taken aback, but his shock was replaced with a sleazy smirk, highlighting his crooked and rotten teeth, “Even better.”
It was now Cale’s turn to be surprised, but he made sure not to show it. Cale continued to walk away, speeding up his steps. Fortunately, the tea shop was right around the corner.
There it was, ‘The Fragrance of Tea’. He unlocked the door to the store. The place was clean, organized, and had an earthy scent throughout.
“Oh, Cale, you’re here already?” An unfamiliar voice directed at him spoke.
Cale turned around to be greeted by a short, female teenager with wavy, brown, long hair, hazel eyes, and a nametag that read ‘Beatrice’.
“Elijah is on his way.” She mentioned while she put on a black apron.
Cale assumed Beatrice and Elijah were his employees. “What time do we open, Beatrice?” He asked, hoping to gather more information on who this body is, and what kind of world he’s in. He presumed the world was similar to his original world before the apocalypse with no dungeons, or monsters.
“We open at twelve; so in thirty minutes.” She replied. “And I told you to call me Bea!” She scolded.
A teenage boy rushed into the store, “I’m here! I’m not late!” He had a mop of dirty blonde hair, his eyes were forest green, freckles were scattered on his face, and Cale guessed that was Elijah which was confirmed by the nametag.
“About time, Elijah.” Bea narrowed her eyes.
“Sorry-” His words were cut off as soon as his gaze landed on Cale, “Holy shit, boss.” Elijah was completely starstruck, unable to look away from Cale, “You’re hot as hell!”
The redhead raised a brow, righting his words off as a joke.
Bea slapped Elijah on the back of his head, “Elijah! You’re talking about our boss!” Cale could clearly pick up on the dynamic of his two employees.
“But it’s true!” He argued. “Boss, respectfully, you’re a total hottie.” Cale simply turned the other way, choosing to dismiss his statements.
The store was finally opened, and the day went by without much hazards except for the fact that Bea forgot about the scones in the oven and almost burnt the place down.
“And you say I’m irresponsible.” Elijah held his nose up high while crossing his arms.
“That’s because I was occupied with cleaning up your messes!” She reminded him. “How come you didn’t remember to take them out?” The brunette pressed.
He scrambled for an answer before landing on, “I was just busy doing other things.”
“Yea, busy staring at Cale!” Bea called him out while Elijah blushed like a middle school girl meeting her favourite boy band for the first time.
Cale sighed, finally interjecting, “Calm down you two.” He got up from leaning on the counter. “You did good, made a lot of money.” The teenagers basked in the praise.
“You’re acting like you didn’t make most of the tips.” Bea pointed out.
“You even got phone numbers in the tip jar!” Elijah added. He didn’t like all the attention his boss was getting, and neither did Bea. She made that very clear by grabbing all the flirty messages and throwing them in the trash.
“Those were probably just pranks.” Cale reasoned, while the two students shared a glance, then looked at Cale as if he was crazy.
“You know what— sure, believe that. It’ll be safer for you.” Bea decided to just accept her boss’s obliviousness as he shot her an expression of confusion. Elijah nodded in agreement.
“It’s getting late out, you two should start heading home.” Cale managed to send the two off on their way, “Be safe.”
“Okay, Mom.” They said in unison and glared at each other right after.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay walking home alone?” Elijah asked, concern dripping off every word.
“I’ll be fine. You two make sure to stick together." Cale had recently learned they lived on the same campus.
“We know, we know.” Bea grabbed Elijah by the end of his sleeve, and dragged him out of the store.
“Bye mom!”
Cale sighed affectionately, “Bye kids.” Cale tried to keep his composure while memories of On, Hong, and Raon played in his mind.
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While the teenagers were on their walk home, a conversation struck, “Don’t you think Boss was a little weird?” Bea pointed out.
“Yea, but it was a good weird.” Elijah continued, “He was more laid back, and wanted to know more about us.” The dirty blonde smiled as he spoke.
“I guess you’re right.” Bea couldn’t refute his words.
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Back at the tea shop, the thirty-eight year old hung up his apron, and locked up the store to prepare for his departure.
Cale memorized the route from his to the shop after he was pleasantly surprised to find out he still had Record, meaning he most likely had Instant too, not that he would want to find out. It was a shame he didn’t have his ancient powers. His mind was too quiet.
Cale walked down the same pathways from the beginning of the day. The air was chilly, the sky was dark, and full of smoke clouds. He was still unfamiliar with the neighborhood, and the people living in it. He just hopes the catcalling isn’t a recurring thing.
“Oh, don’t we have looker here tonight, boys!” Cale turned to face four men, the supposed ‘leader’ was bald with multiple scars, to his left was a man with a buzz cut, at the leader’s right was a guy in a bowl cut, and the man in the man in back had a very obvious receding hairline.
Cale internally grimaced, Not again. Cale tried to walk away, picking up his pace.
The redhead felt rough hands grab his shoulders, shoving his back against the brick wall. Cale audibly winced, “Be cooperative and you won’t get hurt.”
“Yea!” Bowl cut hyped up Baldie.
“What do you want?” Cale asked, keeping his face flat, though his eyes showed a hint of fear.
“We just want to have a good time.” Baldie nuzzled into the crook of Cale’s neck, then took a long sniff of his hair, “He smells like fucking flowers. Must be a rich kid.” The bald man concluded, his excitement growing by the second.
“You caught a good one, Chief!” Receding hairline snickered, “We should take his cash!” He pitched.
Baldie gave it some thought before responding “We can do that after we get our fill.” The scarred man licked his lips as Cale felt something hard press against his leg.
Cale felt like gagging. Why did he have to be brought to this stupid universe? He saw the leader leaning in for a kiss and quickly turned away, causing him to miss his mark.
Cale felt a sharp sting on his right cheek that made it go numb. A rough hand grabbed his face, the taller man’s nails creating marks on his skin. “Take it like the bitch you are!” He yelled, spit spraying out as he spoke.
He hates pain. He hates not having his ancient powers. He hates being away from his family. What did he do to deserve this?
The feeling of chapped lips pressing against his neck snapped Cale out of his train of thoughts. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes while he struggled in Baldie’s grip.
Before anything more could happen, a tall man in a bat costume landed on the ground beside them.