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Warnings
This story contains strong language and violence down the line.

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14 years ago

The place we live in, is such a small place. I wonder what is beyond that? Are we the only alive Numans? Or are there more of us?

Oji approaches Nouma who is lying face up on the ground, "Noumaaaaa! It's time to harvest crops."

Nouma doesn't respond and seems to be preoccupied. Oji comes closer to Nouma and realizes that he is lost in his thoughts. He speaks loudly, "Are you even listening to me?"

I want to see what lies beyond the boundaries that I live within. I want to know the secrets of the world.

Oji smacks Nouma's head with his right hand, "Nouma Ginoum! Snap out of it! Daydream again and I'll knock you out for real."

Nouma comforts his head as he is startled by the smack, "Oh! Sorry, my bad. You're looking alive as ever old man! I'm feeling rather confident today, let's have another race. I have one of my three chances of the week remaining, don't I? Race me to the field today!"

Oji answers, "How many times do you want to lose? Learn to gauge the difference in skill set that others possess compared to you."

He places his hands on his hip as he continues, "You keep challenging me even though you lose every time. Don't you have any pride? You know what, take a 10 second headstart today!"

"You sure old man? It took me 46 seconds the last time, while it took you 41 seconds. Don't get too cocky. The face you would make when you realize that you lost to an 8 year old kid, I'm gonna defeat you just for that look on your face!"

Nouma wastes no time and starts running straightaway. Oji thinks to himself, "His speed at this age far surpasses mine when I was 8 years old. I wasn't nearly as fast as him back then."

A grin appears on Oji's face as he falls deeper into his thoughts, "Can he become as strong as an Original Numan? We were the 1st generation of numans selected by the 'Big 5' themselves. If he can reach that level, he will basically be invincible. Well, we will have to wait and see. But I cannot let him taste victory this easily at such a young age! The boy needs a reality check."

Oji zooms past Nouma in the blink of an eye. It also seems as if he appeared in front of Nouma out of thin air.

"W-What just happened? Did you just teleport? I couldn't see anything."

Nouma points the index finger of his right hand towards Oji, "I was looking out for changes in air patterns just as you taught so I would had known if you were catching up. Hacks! You're using hacks!"

Oji chuckles as he speaks, "No, it wasn't teleportation or anything related to that. It took me slightly more than half a second to come here. You weren't able to follow my movement? I thought both of your eyes function properly! Was I wrong? Are you blind or something?"

"This cocky old man! He completed it in half a second? For real? How am I supposed to even compete with that? Has he been holding back against me this whole time?"

Nouma smiles anxiously, "This just shows how much I'll have to improve to surpass you! I still have a lot to learn! I can't wait for the day to arrive when I finally beat you!" 

Oji continues, "Are you satisfied now? I'm out of shape so it was great to be able to loosen up my muscles a bit. I fulfilled this week's promise of three races. Come help me harvest crops now."

Oji pretends to cough as he continues, "I'm an old man after all."
Nouma impotently replies, "Give me a break, will you?"

Both of them start harvesting 'Profan'. While working, Nouma suddenly asks Oji, "Old man, how were you in your childhood?"

Oji is startled by the sudden question, "Well that came out of the blue! First and foremost, call me grandpa. Show me some respect."

"I'll start to do that at some point, old man." says Nouma.

"You really are stupid and simple minded, aren't you? I don't remember much, but I was definitely faster than you! Not to mention my strength was on another level compared to you! Simply put, I was a superior version of you! I'm not bragging or anything, I'm just letting you know how pathetic you are and how much better I was!"

Nouma is triggered by the response, "I asked you to tell me about your childhood, I didn't ask you to roast me! You know what, keep it to yourself, I'm not that interested in hearing about your stupid past anyways."

Oji thinks to himself as Nouma continues to talk, "That's not it, the truth is that I don't remember most of the things from my childhood. All I remember is that when I was 15, I was very fast and insanely strong and a guy taught me 'Fento Martial Arts'. That's what he called it for some reason. Why do I keep remembering these same moments again and again? I have asked several Martial Arts Masters what Fento means but none of them seem to know about it. It has always been bugging me why that guy said to never teach Fento to anyone else. I can remember all of this, but I can't remember that guy."

Oji places his right hand on his forehead as he starts to feel uneasy, "Must be my imagination? It's true that not many know about the techniques that were taught to me, but they weren't anything new. They already existed and were taught by other Martial Arts Masters as well, the only difference being that they were taught under different names. I should stop thinking about this."

Oji's body starts shivering all of a sudden and he falls on his knees. Nouma carelessly reacts, "Are you fine old man? Age is getting the better of you! You are 69 already! How long do you plan to live? Want me to help you? Request me to help and I might consider it!"

"Why does this always happen when I think of that guy?"

Nouma helps Oji get back up and supports him on the way back. Both of them return home. It's a small hut and Nouma's mother, Nota is preparing dinner for the family.

"Mom, we are home. Give this old man some water or he will die!"

Nota twists Nouma's right ear as she speaks, "Now now son, mind your language! Learn to respect elders. Apologize to grandpa right now."

Pain is visible on Nouma's face as he pleads, "Ouch! That really hurt mom. Please loosen your grip!"

Nota doesn't let go of his ear. Nouma hesitantly speaks, "Fine! Fine! Sorry old man."

Nota doesn't let go of Nouma's ear yet, "Old man? Didn't I say you to respect elders?"

Nouma responds loudly, "SORRY GRANDPA!"

The three of them have dinner together. As usual, Nota has made Profan curry and there is some leftover bread from lunch.

"So Grandpa, what happened to father 8 years ago?"

Oji looks at Nouma with an irritated face, "Here you go again! This is the one thing that I absolutely hate about you. Are you testing my patience?"

Nota looks towards Nouma, "Can't we have a peaceful dinner for at least one day Nouma? Why do you keep asking that?"

Oji continues, "You ask that question daily and my answer is always the same. He mysteriously disappeared when you was 3 months old. Done and dusted. My answer won't change even if you keep repeating the same question again and again, because that's exactly what happened!"

"I always keep asking because that makes no sense. How can someone just disappear? I want to know more about the incident. You surely know something that you haven't told me."

Oji screams on top of his voice, "Enough already! Eat dinner and go to sleep."

Nouma yells back, " I don't want to! All I want is you telling me the truth. I might be just 8, but I'm not stupid. Someone cannot just disappear into thin air."

Oji loses his cool, "Stop this unnecessary commotion. I have told you everything I know. Don't be a pain in the hea-"

Nouma stands up continues as he keeps running out of breath, "Me? A pain in the head? Well you are the one who has been a pain in the head lately. You blatantly lie, your eyes give it away. How long do you plan to continue this? I'll find out the truth on my own someday even if you don't tell me about it."

Oji chops Nouma's neck. Nouma's eyeballs roll upwards as he falls unconscious.

"Sorry Nota. I had no other way to silence him. He wouldn't had slept properly in this state of mind. That hit was hard, he probably won't wake up till sunrise."

"I understand. I'll talk to him once he is awake. Looks like he let it all out today. I don't get it, why does he keep doing this? It really worries me that he doesn't trust our words." says Nota.

"I don't think that's the case here, Nota. It's a general tendency of our family to not completely believe in something that we haven't seen with our own eyes, I can't really blame him. Either way, don't worry about it."

Oji carries Nouma to his bed and then heads to sleep. Around 1 AM, Nouma wakes up suddenly. It takes him some time to process what actually happened back then.

"That old man really hit me, didn't he? Pulling out such a dirty trick to stop me from asking questions. This further supports my theory that he is hiding something. I don't want to live a life in which I don't know what is happening around me. I wonder what Dad would have done in this situation? I don't remember anything about him, but I somehow feel that he would have done the same thing if he was in my situation. I want to know more about everything and uncover all the secrets of NotEarth, but Grandpa won't let me go. 'You shouldn't go too far away from home.'...lies! All lies! All I can do is run away. Wait! Why didn't I think about this before? I can leave this place at this very moment and explore the world. It's that simple!"

Nouma makes sure that both Nota and Oji are sleeping, "I can do whatever I want, with no one else interfering! I'm a genius!"

Nouma heads out and dashes from the house. However, Oji appears in front of him out of nowhere!

What a monster! That chop was hard enough to have him knocked out till sunrise. He recovered from that so quickly!

"How are you here? I made sure that you were sleeping!"

Oji boasts, "Noob, did you underestimate me? I can sense breathing patterns of those within a radius of 100m around me even when I'm in a deep sleep. Your inhalation point changed drastically so I knew something was wrong. This is a Special Fento Technique -
TOTAL CONCENTRATION SERIES: PATTERN BREATHING"

Nouma thinks to himself, "There it is again! At this point, I'm almost certain that he's using hacks!"

Oji sighs as he continues, "To think that the day would come that you would want to leave us behind and run away. Why did you do what you just did? Explain yourself."

"Whenever I ask something, nobody answers me directly. You just ignore the question or make up your own answers. So I thought I'll find all the answers myself! If you are going to stop me. I'll fight you. I'll defeat you right here, right now and run away."

Oji takes a seat, "So you are that desperate! I guess I have no choice but to tell you everything I know about the world."

TO BE CONTINUED

NOTEARTH VOCABULARY #1

NOTEARTH: Planet on which the story takes place.

NUMANS: Human like species on NotEarth.

PROFAN: A fruit rich in all vitamins and found easily where Nouma resides. It is the staple food of Ginoum family.

FENTO MARTIAL ARTS: A special kind of Martial Arts known to only a few Original Numans.

ORIGINAL NUMANS: Individuals of 1st generation selected by the BIG 5. Oji Ginoum is one of the Original Numans.

BIG 5: The five most skilled numans of the 1st generation.

CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS #1

Nouma Ginoum
Present Age: 22 years
Appearance: Red hair, brown eyes. Height-189 cm.

Oji Ginoum
Present Age: 83 years
One of the people from the 1st generation of Numanity. Nouma's Grandfather.
Appearance: White spiky hair. Red eyeballs. Traditional japanese clothes. Height-171 cm.

Nota Ginoum
Present Age: 49 years
Nouma's Mother.
Appearance: Black hair and black eyes. Height-155 cm.