05. Man Proposes and God Disposes

on the way back cripple and pocket keep chattering, mostly it was pocket who always had something to talk about. while listening to pocket, cripple attention was seized by an old doctor across the street.

cripple was taken a back slightly, he noticed that the doctor attire was something very familiar to him, it was the same as normal doctor attire on earth! not only that, on the doctor's neck there was a stethoscope hanging nicely! it was quite novel sight.

the doctor seems in the middle of conversation with a pair of father and his teenage daughter, the daughter age looks around 14 years old while holding her father hand, she was listless and her complexion was pale, cripple could hear their conversation rather clearly.

"doctor, thank you for this medicine, it is such great help..." said the patient.

the old doctor smiled, "please don't be, just remember mr.phil, blood pills indeed could replenish her blood lost very effectively, but you should take a note that your daughter also need more rest and need more water to drink."

"i understand, thank you so much doctor. evi, thanks the doctor quickly." nudge him to her daughter. soon, after profusely thanking the doctor the duo went back home with looks of relief.

'...anemia? doctor? and isn't that stethoscope? could it be....?...'

cripple fell into his own thought, witnessing what happened before he couldn't help but held some suspicions that he wasn't the only transmigrator here in this world, there should be others. after all the terms of anemia and that stethoscope, was something only invented after 17th century, and the world he was now from his observation was clearly medieval cum renaissance era.

while immersing in his own thought he finally back to the beggars lair.

back to the barn, cripple and pocket gave their earnings toward the guarding thugs, after checking their daily deposits with cold snort, he pointed towards a pot filled with disgusting gruel for them to eat

the thug was simply didn't noticed that at the head part of cripple walking stick there was an addtional inconspicuous protruding lump on it, making the usual Y to ￥ . it was actually the scroll from before disguised as sticks lump by cripple before he came.

he cut off some wooden chunk from the upper part of his walking stick then found some ashes, rotten eggs, some clay from the ground and sticks it on the removed part, next he polished it with smooth stone as to similize its appearance with the walking stick.

it wasn't perfect as he has the knowledge yet limited tools. even so he was confident enough it won't be found out by those thugs as long as they didn't inspect it closely.

without saying anything both of them took broken bowls strewn around and filled it with cold gruel, next they strode back towards their usual spot, yet as they went, they let out of gasp as they witnessed something horrible in front of them.

there were three children bodies with their hands tied hanging down from the ceiling! their thin small bodies were ridden with fresh wound, blood could be seen dripping off their legs, they looks extremely misserable.

gritted his teeth, cripple soon continued to limp away while pocket looking for someone she knew around, she then approached another thin boy whom in the midst of eating his gruel,

"street, street, what happened to them." whispered pocket towards the boy,

soon the boy who was called by pocket gander towards her while soon continuing to eat in lifeless manner. he was called street no.7 as his job was to roam and scrounging the street.

"they were caught by the bosses." the boy sighed.

"caught? why they got caught?" urged pocket in hushed voice.

"because they tried reporting about us to the lord before on the square..."

she gasped for a moment,

"then? were they succeed??" soon she asked, there was hopeful tone in her voice.

"sigh, of course not. how could that be so easy? the guards stopped them before they came close to the lord, then they were thrown far away, they were unlucky as the bosses witnessed what happened, so...yeah...here they are...?" there was a hint of tears on street's eyes as he continued to eat while brooding.

pocket jolted awake as if she was strucked by lightning as she remembered clearly what cripple had said to her before.

"...i just hope they will survive till tomorow, the bosses said, it was to remind us of what would happened to the snitches."

both of them fell silent for a while untill irritating laughter came from behind pocket, then a slightly thin hand landed on pocket's shoulder. frown shown on pocket face as she smacked it away clearly disliked such act.

"street no.10...." soon the face of street no.7 turned fierce, he gritted his teeth loudly, seems ready to pounch toward the newly arrived boy in any moment.

waving both of his hand exaggeratedly, street no.10 faced toward the other boy, "no, no, no...what do you want? i didn't do nothing okay. i love peace..." his sounds so insincere, irritating smirk could be seen on his face.

"peace you says? if you didn't snitched on street no.6 and 5, they would be eating here with me!" exclaimed street no.7, "...you arrogant rats! just because you were new and master Q often praised you! if not? do you think you could still standing now!?"

street no.10 sniggered while looking down on no.7, "hei, hei, hei, i just followed the rules, they broke it first...don't blame me for enforcing the rules then..." then he glanced toward pocket, "....isn't that so pocket no.6?"

pocket didn't reply as she keep glaring at no.10.

"rules? you want to be thugs lackey? fat hope! don't you have any shame? we are here together, we suffer together, don't you have any solidarity with us?"

"solidarity? hahahaha, you're joking, why do i need to stay with you trashes here? listen no.7, you need big brain to enter the eyes of our boss, once you in, your status will rise and glamorous life awaits!!! ptooey." he spat then turned around to leave, not forgetting to threw a view glance toward pocket seemingly scheeming something.

pocket held no.7 who almost jumped out to fight no.10, she tried to soothe him while reminding about where they were at right now, if trouble arises then the thugs won't sided with them and no.10 would won, pocket clearly felt something wasn't right as street no.10 keeps provoking them.

"calm down no.7, just bear with it till tomorow, then we'll find a chance to beat him up, no matter how shameless he is, no.10 wouldn't want to report it to master Q as it means he would look so incompetent." whispered pocket.

conflict between child beggars often happened, and the thugs usually turn the blind eye towards it, so pocket and street no.7 began to concoct some plan for tomorow.

let out a sigh no.7 said, "you're right pocket, we'll beat him tomorow. no, together with 5 and 6, thanks pocket no.6, you should go eat now, its already dark here."

pocket nodded, soon she returned to her usual spot besides cripple.

"let me guess, the three of them attempted to report to the lord yet failed right?" said cripple still slowly eating.

pocket was taken aback yet she slowly nod affirming the matter,

"...you should be more careful in the future, and also..." cripple pointed toward the other corner of the barn, there was street no.10 with his buddies eating while laughing.

he continued, "...be watchful of that guy, his intention is clearly impure, he could be detrimental for our plans..."

pocket assent in silence, the night soon came, pocket fell a sleep while cripple start his daily meditation.

'...after i learned about the proper mana technique, i could feel how much mana i had in my vessel, seems around the amount of small medicine jar bottle, everything becomes much clearer now...' he paused for a moment glancing at pocket whom slept besides him, her face was thin and haggard, the usual cheerful pocket looks pitiful while sleeping, next he took several gunny sack of his to cover her body.

he smiled gently then whispered, "thanks to you..."

with newly found determination his countenance turns serious as he began to revolves the mana back again in attempt to refines it.

***

in the past 3 days cripple controls over mana became much more refined, he invented 3 ways to utilizes his mana, from the intangible natural mana around, now he could make it tangible after he refined and stored it inside his body.

first he invented mana shield, it was sphere-shaped with 2m diameter with his body as the center. it was invissible yet when the shield comes in contact with something it will brighten on the contacts area, and if the point of impact got more force on it, white sparks will scatter around, he also deemed that the amount of strike force blocked was limited to his own mana reserves.

the second was mana bullet, he could compress the mana as small as possible and shot it out. yet again, the power and shapes of it was depending on how much mana he could invest,

as of now, both of those abilities mana consumption was still 1:1 ratio. regarding this, cripple could only sigh helplessly as he knew that himself need more training on his mana controls.

if the other magician knew about how he could control his mana freely, even if they died they will turns inside their own graves!

after all the only way to use their mana reserves was by chanting spells and the use of magic circles, other then absorbing and refining it, they couldn't control it freely.

but cripple understanding of magic spell and magic circle were different, after he witnessed the magician executor from the square, he thought that magic spell was a means to amplified the mana power and not to control mana, he concluded that with 1 mana he could achieved 10 magic power by using spells and that was what cripple want to learns now.

and the last ability was actualy to use mana to stimulates or impart some of cripples knowledge to other person's brain.

just yesterday he got street no.7 as his lab-rat in subtle way, he asked him how many is 20+20? of course street didn't know the answer, yet thanks to his knowledge about brain anatomy and how it worked, cripple sent his modified mana sense directly to his brain, stimulates and imparted the answer.

the result? even street no.7 also wasn't sure how he got the answer right as he never learn the calculations, he said it felt like he was suddenly knew about it without even studying properly.

after a few times of experiments, he even stimulate street to dance and it worked! without any warning street no.7 suddenly danced in the middle of the street without care. cripple deemed it as a success. he named it brain control (mind control).

street no.7 was so flabergasted as he didn't know what actually happened to him, he even asked pocket and cripple if he was turning crazy all this while.

in the past 3 days cripple felt so fullfilled , alas the destiny wheel pushed him forward eventually.

just right before the sunset, cripple with pocket sat down together, eating the disgusting gruel for today,

all of sudden there was a loud shout came from the door,

"POCKET NO.6 COME HERE!"

staring each other in confusion, both of them look towards the voice source, there was a familiar burly figure standing at the door folding arms with sinister smile plastered on his face. he was one of master Q underling.

"YOU D*AMN WRETCH! DID YOU HEAR I CALLED?" urging the man.

without knowing what happened, pocket patted cripple's shoulder then with hurried steps she went to the burly man.

when she approached, the man didn't say anything only gave her a signal to follows.

not long after, cripple noticed street no.10 at the usual corner gathered together with his friends. feeling something wasn't right he sharpened his ears, few of them sniggered in sly manner especialy street no.10.

"hey no.10, are you sure? how could that b*tch even hide for past few years?" whispered some of his henchman.

hearing that, cripple glinted his left eye in dangerous light.

"I'm sure, you should've know she doesn't have anything here..." he said pointing toward his crotch, "....hahahaa, with these i could surely enter the bosses rank!"

cripple stood up and limped toward the door as fast as he could, he knew that the situation had turned dreadful.

few of street no.10 buddies saw cripple walking toward the door, while chuckling street no.10 together with his buddies went and intercepted cripple's way.

with arrogant smile, "well, well, well...isn't this pocket's lover? where do you think you're going?" he said.

his buddies surrounding laugh rauciously , there were around 5 kids including no.10, they looked at cripple with malevolent intent. yet at this moment, they didn't notice several strands of mana penetrating their skulls.

"hahahhaa, you should be grateful as your lover would get promotion of status in a while!!! from street rats to courtesan, isn't it great for her future?" they continued laughing without noticing anything.

however, in an instant their laughter stopped, their face turn listless as their bodies fell down with a bam! one after another.

"noisy...." mumbled cripple. he quickly reached the locked barn door. after determining where the locks were at, without saying anything he shot mana bullet toward several locks!

pang! pang! pang!

the locks were instantly pulverized. he pushed the door rather easily, what he witnessed outside was, there were 3 thugs who had came hearing the commotions before stood still with dumbfounded look at their face,

seeing cripple no.1 limping closer.

"wha...what? what the f*ck? you rat! what did you do? how dare you stayi.."

just right before one of the thugs finished his speech, cripple already incapacitated them, just like of what happened towards street no.10 and his buddies, the thugs bodies turn listless and they fell down unconscious.

'using this brain controls on adult sure has its disadvantage...it requires me to spent more mana than usual.' cripple thought, nevertheless he soon sends the mana to his left leg in order to strengthened it.

casting his mana sense as far as possible he ascertained where pocket was currently at, as he fixed his eye at the 2nd story building across the alley.

***

at the same time, pocket had just arrived in front of the room, then she entered it without hesitation, she turned cold as she saw master Q was standing inside the office room with his personal collection all over the place.

with menacing looks and sinister smile on his face, master Q walked closer and closer.

at this moment, realization dawned upon her, her secrets were somehow exposed! dread shown on her face, just when she turned around towards the door attempting to flee, burly hand grabed her messy blonde hair.

"aaaah! stay away scum!!!" she struggled, trying to break away from his grip, alas it was useless.

master Q tightened his grip and brought pocket face close to his own, with nasty manners he licked pocket face!

"slurp*...well, well, well. never thought that there was a flower in the middle of dungs." then he threw pocket across the room, she rammed toward the wooden table quite hard.

glittering tears cascaded her face, she struggled to stand. unwillingness and extreme rage were shown, she looked around and found a dagger on top of the table, brandishing it toward master Q.

"whoa, calm down princess, don't be hasty, don't worry, i didn't do anything to you right?"

even though he said that, in a blink of an eye master Q moved his burly body right in front of her, with a simple sweep he slapped the dagger away from her hand, stunned for a moment she tried to get away from there. yet, what meets her was large hand of master Q slapping her right on the face!

her body fell down from the impact! she was on the verge of losing her conciousness completely, master Q wasn't holding back his slap.

master Q grabbed her hair once more, dragging her toward an old sofa, he sat on top of it while pulling her hair up, then he pulled up pocket face, forcing her face to face with him.

"don't worry, i know how expensive your v*rginity are, i won't do that to you, at least not now, but surely you could use your mouth to please me? hehhehe consider it as down payment..." he said with nasty intention.

spat!

alas pocket spat on his face, there was phlegm tinge with blood on it, with listless face, panting she said in racous voice, "go to hell! i'd rarher die..."

master Q expression turn cold at once.

slap! slap! slap!

he slapped pocket face a few more times, this time he contolled his strength quite a bit.

right now pocket was almost given up completely, yet she couldn't muster any courage to bit her tongue moreover she lost her strength entirely, her eyes completely bruished and her usual thin cheeks now swell, blood could be seen dripping out of her nose and mouth.

"you b*tch, i gave you simple mercy yet you didn't appreciate it! YOU THINK I WON'T KILL YOU? I COULD FIND ANY B*TCHESS LIKE YOU ON THE STREET!!!" raising his voice master Q tightened his grip, causing a few strand of pockets hair to ripped from its base.

"now, i wont ask anymore, obey or suffer!" threathened him in menacing voice.

"uhk cough* cough*....kh, khe, khehehe...i seys, i rasser dai...khuh, pant* wheeze*, go....soo hell..." said pocket in faint rough voice,

she really felt her consciousness leaving her rapidly, her memory flashed by, especially her dear crippled buddy that always stays beside her all this time, what she regrets the most was the seemingly fact she didn't have any chance to witness how far cripple could reach in life.

'...my dear friend, i'm sorry, i still have a lot to say and do a lot of things with you, but seems like i won't be there anymore, I'm unwilling, i missed you, i missed your voice, your advice, i missed your flick, i just hope you well and stay healthy...'

she felt her breathing stifled as now master Q strangled her tiny neck, slowly hardened his grip.

just as she was on the verge of death, all of sudden.

BANG!

~~~