An adaptation of Roleplay with: Childofpluto68
LastRenegadeTS
Cenn51903
_Lexscallion_

Have you ever admired a fictional character's ideal so much that it shaped your very being? That even when you've lost everything that was you, that aspect still remains? I know I do. Even now... I still do.

The story starts with a boy waking up to a rather annoying and admittedly, effective alarm clock. As he stood up, he scratched his spiky, jet black hair as he rose up from the sleeping bag he called a bed.

He then puts on his glasses as he goes to the bathroom and gargles before looking at his face, sighing as his vision drifts to his one blind eye. He then sighs, saying "Well, it couldn't be helped. Nothing I can do about it now. Time to cook breakfast. Don't want aunt to do all the chores by herself, now would I?"

He then took a quick and thorough bath before heading down the three story house who's bottom floor was converted into a cafe. He then heads to the kitchen before turning the stove up. He then takes out various ingredients and started cooking.

A female voice then could be heard upstairs amidst the sound of fish frying, saying, "Hey Mal, you know you don't really have to wake up THIS early to cook right? That's my job as your guardian." to which the newly named Mal then replies "I know, but I just wanted to help." The voice then sighs deeply, saying "You always do..."

By no means can he be considered the best chef, but various people can definitely ascertain the quality of the food he creates. If it were to be put into comparison, his cooking was definitely something you could find in Masterchef kids level.

As to how he became proficient, it was not due to any need to learn nor due to the goading of his aunt turned guardian. It was something a bit deeper. Whereas most people may like some shows or in some rarer cases, obsess over them to unhealthy levels, to this boy, the shows he watched and the ideals they imparted were all he had left.

An incident happened 10 years ago and he had to give up everything he was, is, could've been just to keep moving, all except an ideal he admired. One that meant helping and saving others to a point wherein one's own safety mattered no more. A terrifying takeaway from a certain red haired, golden eyed anime protagonist.

However, it isn't even funny to mention that that's exactly the very ideals that drove him. Anime being the only happy memory he had that didn't involve anyone included in that incident, his mind decided to shut every other memory away. His former friends, his family, everything, just to keep him stable. It may not have been of magical origins as the one in the show he watched, but it was so damn close. The fire burned away his past was also incited by humanity showing it's evil.

He was left to a friend of his mother known to him as his "Aunt Mai" which was short for Marie Ann Espiña. He even had to take under her last name due to even the mention of his original last name giving him panic attacks.

Now he is left as a hollow shell of his former self, unable to find happiness in anything but anime, cooking and helping others.

He then finishes up cooking the meal, which was a basic meal of stir fried fish, fried rice and a sunny side up on top which he then serves to a table which he and his aunt ate. His aunt then took the tame to savor the tastes before commenting "Hey bud, I don't mean to be rude or anything but isn't your usual cooking better? Why did you cook something simple? What changed?"

Mal then gives her a (-_-) face before saying "That was all the ingredients you had on the non-cafe fridge. You forgot to buy groceries so I had to make do with what I got. I also had to ration for lunch later since I don't order from the school cafe."

Aunt Mai then chuckled nervously at her nephew's complaint, saying "I'll get on that."

After breakfast, he then brushed his teeth and then proceeded to change to his school uniform which consisted of a light blue polo shirt, a brown sweatervest and a black pair of slacks. He then wears his white hoodie over it before taking up his bag.

As he left, his aunt rushed to him, giving him a paper bag with a couple chocolate donuts inside, pecks him on the forehead and then says "Remember eat it, I made those for you and NOT your classmates."

Mal then sweatdrops, saying "Right... Sorry about last time..." before his aunt pouts. She then smiles, saying "Now be safe hon." as Mal waves her goodbye, saying "I will!"

He then made his way to the school via walking considering he lives like four blocks away from it. As he did, he then notices an old man struggling to push an ice cream cart off a man hole.

Being the obsessively selfless person that he was, he then ran up to the ice cream man and shouts "Hey Gary! Need help there?" to which the old man looks at him, squints and then says "Ah, Michael me lad, y-yes. It would seem my cart got stuck on this stupid open man hole. M-mind helping this old man out?"

Mal happily nods, saying "I'm always happy to!" before helping old man Gary to push it out. It took quite a bit of effort due to the ones pushing the cart being an old man and a boy whose physical age was stuck at 13 due to a genetic defect which froze him at prepubescent.

After they did, both of them then let out a deep sigh. Gary then opens the cart and says "Say, I want to thank you for helping me almost fifteen times already. Here, have this choco cone on the house!"

Mal then hesitated to accept it, before sighing and relenting. This was due to him learning that denying someone the chance to express their gratitude would be an insult to the person and that it usually leaves them with bad taste in their mouths.

After that, he was back on track, jogging while twitching in pain after swallowing the whole ice cream, save for the cone, in one gulp. "Brain... freeze... hurts..."

His eyes then widen as he sees a fellow student, a stranger, unknowingly go in front of a moving delivery truck. The truck didn't notice either because of it's height and the driver probably being sleepy still, due to it still being 7 am.

In a sudden burst of speed, Mal then rushed at the student. He then pushes the student away, but due to still holding his utility knife, the student thought that this random schoolmate was going to shank him, so the kid somehow drew a tazer faster and tazed Mal right in the temple.

Mal was able to luckily push both of them to safety, but went into a shock induced coma from his brain being screwed over by the electricity from the tazer.

Lucky for him, Gary saw the whole thing and began dialing 911.

A few hours later, aunt Mai was nervously paced in front of a hospital emergency room when suddenly the doctor comes out.

She then rushes and says "Doc, what happened, is he okay? Is he alive? Tell me please!"

The doctor gestured for her to calm down before saying "Yes, Michael is alive. But..."

Mai hesitated before asking, "But what doc?"

"But... The tazer shocked his brain sa badly that he possibly fell into a permanent coma. When he does come around if at all, he will most likely remain in a vegetative state..."

Mai then covered her mouth as she tried but failed to hold back the tears streaming down from her eyes. Someone so young, so selfless, so hardworking, someone like him shouldn't have gone through that.

Her mind was then filled with so many "If only's" until the doctor's hand then snaps her back to reality, saying "The best you can do is hope and wait, pray if you believe in that sort of thing, pray for a miracle that he'd recover when he awakens. Until then, take care of him. Excuse me, I have to attend another patient."

He then left as she sat beside Mal, crying while gripping his arm. She tries to talk, only being able to make out a whisper amidst the tears, saying "You'll be okay bud. I know you will" over and over, not to goad Mal somehow, but to convince herself.

Meanwhile, Mal's mind and soul were somewhere else. Mal gasps and then looks around in what seemed to be space. He sees himself sitting on a chair in front of a throne. He then looks to his left as he hears footsteps resound in the void as a humanoid being, wearing a dirty cloaked hood walks in with his hands tucked in his pocket. The humanoid being then speaks in a slightly warbled voice akin to that of Alex Hirsch.

"Welcome to the crossroads..."

Mal was about to scream but the man then says "Don't freak out!"

To be continued....