We walked into a clothing store. I kept my eyes peeled for anything that was cheap.

I didn't buy chocolate milk for two days, so I did have some money left. I wanted to treat myself with it later on, but I guess living a bug-free life was worth more.

"You done yet?' Johnathan had already finished buying.

I on the other hand was still busy searching for cheap stuff. And finally, I found something.

It was a pink sweater, bear-themed. And even I could tell that it was made for girls. But it was the least expensive and half the price of the male version.

'It's dark in the night, right?'

I was making up excuses but I didn't really mind wearing a sweater. Besides, it wasn't like it had any tag saying that it was made for girls.

I tried it on and it fit too. Maybe a bit tight but still a good fit. But when I walked into the light around the counter, I saw a bit of writing near the bottom edge. 'Made by girls for girls.'

Why did nothing ever work out?

I still bought it though.

Both of the cashier and Johnathan giggled silently. I felt like crawling into a hole but when you didn't have money, life really was cruel.

Maybe I should have gone a bit easy on the chocolate milk and saved more money.

***

I walked a lot faster than usual. The faster I could get out of the city, the better.

By the time we were out of the city, it was ten. We were actually moving a lot faster than I thought. If everything was good, we could have even reached the academy by ten-thirty.

Of course, this area was like the suburbs so there were a lot of people here too. I had little to no facial hair. So people never really found me funny in these clothes.

But that only made me feel worse.

If they were running around giggling and all that, it would have been fine with me, I mean that would have been natural. I would have been embarrassed and a little angry but it still would have been fine. But just assuming I was a girl? I really felt like someone just took away my masculinity at this point. So frustrating.

I didn't have long hair you know!

Of course, Johnathan's silent giggles weren't helping in that matter either. "We'll be taking a left here. If we walk fast we should be out of the frozen lands in less than half an hour."

"By the way, this island has a volcano and two-headed snakes?"

"The volcano I'm aware of but haven't heard anything about two-headed snakes lately. I heard there were rumors about there being an old two-headed snake ravaging the west: the volcanic region but nothing concrete."

"How old are we talking about?"

"Look mom, she's so pretty." A random kid started whispering to her mother, and thanks to my good hearing, I heard that. I really wanted to crawl into a hole right about now.

'Yeah, no one asked for your commentary, brat!'

Johnathan almost snorted but controlled it at the very last second: I guess he got lucky, cause I was this close to losing my cool. "Twenty- twenty-five years I guess?"

I really, really wanted to crawl into a hole right about now.

As long as it was ten years, it was fine. But I always read that Mutors grew more and more violent the older they were. But I didn't know how long they lived. And not to mention till this day I wasn't even aware of there being a core in Mutors. The sheer amount of the stuff I didn't know about this world, scared me.

Swoosh!

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"A faint wind. I think someone-" I looked back. It was the night of the new moon. The sky was pretty black but in that sky, I saw a dot. "What is that?" I pointed.

"Dunno. Can't see."

The dot in the sky was stationary and seemed to be looking at us. I had a bad feeling about this.

It started to advance towards us.

I had a very bad feeling about this.

'You can't be serious.'

It took the guy exactly three seconds to land right in front of me, shattering the road in pieces. The earth shook and everyone's attention was now on the guy. Even people inside their houses, opened the window to look at what just happened.

"Long time no see, Helio." The debris cleared and a tanned man with blonde hair walked out. His spiky hair and bare chest were the clear indication that he was a villain- according to him. He had a cape, a pair of pants and that was it.

He was a foot taller than me and half a foot wider.

The most notorious criminal in the world was right in front of me, giving me a grin. Honestly, I was pissed if nothing else. If he wasn't my cousin, I'd have given him a pretty good slug right about now.

"Hey." I didn't want to say hi but I had no choice.

"Joh-Joh-John!" Johnathan fell on his knees, quivering all the way. I guess he knew the guy.

I sighed. "Never knew someone could so be freighted of someone with their own name."

"Huh? What do you mean?" My cousin John, looked a bit confused.

"Oh, he's my friend. Same name as yours. He's Johnathan."

"Oh?" John looked at my quivering senior. "Hey, I never gave you permission to use my name." He glared. The club leader meanwhile almost peed himself, shaking as he did: was he really the guy who was being so cool all day? John burst out laughing. "Don't worry. If you're Helio's friend, we're cool."

Apparently, everyone who was around was also shaking more than necessary.

What was so frightening about this clown anyway?

"So, what happened? Why are you here?"

John walked closer to me, wrapped his arm around my neck, and laughed. "I'm proud of you."

I couldn't tell he was serious or just joking so I did a double check on reality by blinking.

He was totally serious.

"What the hell?" What the hell, indeed.

John was my first cousin and he was also a preacher of villain supremacy. He believed the world was a place which could be dominated through sheer power and violence. And he was also the guy who literally hated me since didn't want to follow in his footsteps. According to him, I had the most potential to rule the world and he wanted to see me as the emperor of this world.

But since I always refused he just teased me every now and then. And I was always under the impression that the guy didn't like me anymore.

So what the hell happened to this guy?

"I've never been more proud." He looked into the night sky, shedding a tear of joy.

'Am I in the right world, right now?'

"Umm-? You- two know each-o-other?" Johnathan was still shaking but he got up on shaky legs.

"We're cousins." John glanced back, cold eyes.

Johnathan fell on his legs again.

I sighed. "There goes my cover."

John started laughing again. "Villains don't need covers." He laughed ever so sarcastically. "But well done. I'm proud. But this is just your first step. You'll have to overcome many barriers but I believe one day you'll become the true emperor of this world."

What kind of expired stuff did this guy take to get this high? "Are you high or something? What are you even talking about?"

He flashed another smile and flicked his Holo open. I read the first article and saw living hell.

'Oh shit.'

It simply read, 'Helio Romswell Jintel, the cursed mask is currently going to the Demigrace Academy…. He has done numerous villainous acts…. But the latest would be the murder of Blaze Battlesuin leading to the declaration of war between the two families.'

Huh?

HUh?

HUH!!?

I was confused. No thunderstruck! Flabbergasted!?

What the hell was this!

"And now they've declared war on us. I was always looking for an excuse to crush those losers. Ah, I'm so proud of you." He held my shoulder and shed another tear.

I'd been framed. But the world didn't know that. The world just knew one thing….

'Holy shit. I'm a villain!'

My eyes twitched as I turned to Johnathan. His mouth was hanging. And so were the people' around us. This shit was real.

"By the way?" John poked my cheeks.

"Yeah?" Looking into the distance. My life was over.

All my life I've steered clear of evil things and I even built up a decent cover at the academy but all of just got ruined.

Ah, my life really was over, now.

"Why are you wearing this? Some sort of fetish?"

I looked at John, barely containing my tears.

'I really want a hole to crawl into right about now.'