The Bonds Born from Hotpot

"What are you doing here?" Tyrmes asks as if the boy owed him money.

"Me? Nobody was here when I got here so I took this room." The boy doesn't seem to notice Tyrmes's sassy tone whatsoever, continuing to slurp his noodles while speaking. Some of the soup sprays onto Tyrmes's drape coat as he slurps, making Tyrmes's face grow dark. There were now small visible droplets of chicken flavored soup water on his coat.

Tyrmes's face grows from pale white to bright red as he watches his favorite outfit get soiled. Seeing this, Phoenix lets out a chuckle of approval.

It seems like I'll get along with this guy.

Huffing and puffing, like the big bad wolf, Tyrmes drags Phoenix aside. Phoenix looks amusingly at the vein throbbing on Tyrmes's forehead.

"We need to get rid of this guy!"

"Why? He was here first…"

"The rules for the 5th floor isn't whose first, it's whose strongest."

"Yeah? You really want to follow those barbaric rules when there's only three of us here? We could share the flat and eat hotpot together like civilized men." Phoenix shakes his head in disapproval. Recalling the boy's appreciation for food and honest nature, he decides that the boy is a good person.

"Are you going to help me or not?"

"How are you sure he won't beat you?"

Tyrmes laughs arrogantly as he flips his hair, "Fufufu. Don't look down on me. I'm not truly a F-grade like you two losers. If I lose, I'll commit suicide on a block of tofu."

"..." Phoenix could only think of one word as he watched Tyrmes boast. Hubris. The downfall of every arrogant character in a story.

"Well?"

"Sorry, Tyrmes. I'm going to have to side with Mr. Noodles for this one."

"Hmmph, I figured you would. No matter, I'll take on this clown myself." Tyrmes starts to swagger over towards the boy who is now taking the last few slurps of his soup. The boy lets out a sigh as he stares into the bottom of the soup cup.

"You're back." The boy looks up. Hunger could still be seen in his eyes. He clearly wasn't satisfied with just the instant ramen that he ate.

"Listen here plebeian. You may have gotten here first, but the rules say that the strongest man owns the flat..." Flexing stick-like arms, Tyrses stands tall with his chin held high.

"Or woman."

"Shut up Phoenix"

"Therefore...I challenge you for this flat in an arm wrestling match!" Tyrmes points at the boy arrogantly.

The boy looks at Tyrmes. And then at Phoenix curiously.

"Are you with him?"

Leaning on the side of the kitchen with his arms crossed, Phoenix smiles warmly. "I did arrive with him... But this is all him.

By the way, do you wanna share the flat with me? We can eat hotpot together."

"Sure!" Shaking hands in a friendly manner, they both laugh aloud.

"What's your name?"

"Phoenix. You?"

"You've got a pretty cool name. My name is Xudong!"

"Pleased to meet you."

He turns to Tyrmes.

"Are we doing it with gifts or without?"

"Without."

"Okay."

Both boys get into position on the hardwood floor. They sprawl out each with one arm up. The other arm, under the elbow for support. Phoenix volunteers to referee.

"Okay boys. Let's keep this fair and clean, understand? Ready, set. Wrestle!"

Looking at both boys' arms, Phoenix does some analyzing. Xudong's arm is slightly thinner and he knows Tyrmes lifts dumbbells sometimes when he's bored which means his arm isn't inactive so he calculates that Tyrmes has the higher chance of winning.

But we never know. Looking at Xudong, he feels that that boy is a little too calm considering that he sees the same thing as Phoenix.

Tyrmes lets out his shrill war cry as his small bicep tenses up. The two arms begin to lean in Tyrmes's favor which makes him start to laugh arrogantly.

Xudong says nothing. He seems to be distracted by something. The sound of a stomach growling fills the room. Which makes everyone wonder where the instant ramen he just ate went.

Feeling a bead of sweat fall from his face, Tyrmes doesn't laugh anymore. He felt like he was winning but suddenly, Xudong's arm began applying a lot more pressure. Their arms begin to lean quickly in Xudong's favor.

Dang, Xudong is stronger than I thought! Tyrmes starts to panic.

Phoenix also has a look of surprise.

I can't lose this! Tyrmes silently calls Richard as his arm is about to reach the ground. Since Richard has the same strength as Tyrmes, his arm begins to push back with two-times the strength.

Phoenix was going to call Tyrmes's loss because he noticed him resorting to Richard but then he noticed that Xudong's face hadn't changed since they started. He decides to wait a little longer to see what happens.

Tyrmes's eyes popped out in disbelief. Xudong had stopped his arm from moving even with Richard's help.

"Why are you so damn strong?" Tyrmes lets out a shrill scream before Xudong slams his arm on the floor.

The room goes silent.

"..." Phoenix comes over to examine the defeated Tyrmes who was in shock and wonder. His golden hair is a little disheveled as he lays there lifelessly staring at the ceiling. Giving him a kick in the butt, Phoenix whispers to Tyrmes, "Hubris."

Xudong claps his hands. "Well you used your gift but it made for an interesting match."

"How….did.. you.. impossible…." Tyrmes mutters weakly.

"Yeah... how did you beat Tyrmes?" Phoenix looks at Xudong in confusion.

"I've always been pretty strong I guess."

"You're not just pretty strong, buddy." Tyrmes sits up, scanning the red haired brute in front of him and recalling how he and Richard got steamrolled. "There's no way with those skinny arms you're that strong without a gift."

Xudong waves his hands dismissively. "I don't have a gift."

"What?" Both Phoenix and Tyrmes exclaim.

"You know that ceremony that everyone does to unlock their gift?"

"Wait. Before you start story time... Is there anything to eat here? I haven't eaten all day." Phoenix interjects. He realizes that it's already nighttime. They had been walking around the whole day.

Phoenix's words make Xudong frown. "There's stuff in the fridge but…"

"Wait really? Why were you eating instant ramen then?"

"...I don't know how to cook."

"..."

"...Alright, time for me to do my magic." Phoenix heads to the kitchen and puts on an apron.

An hour later, the three boys were huddled around the dining table. A large pot sat in the middle of them letting off an irresistible aroma.

"Okay soup's up. Today, we have fish tomato soup with a hint of sweet pineapple." Phoenix announces before passing out bowls.

Xudong looks at Phoenix with worshipping eyes as if he had met his savior. With trembling hands, he fills up his bowl of soup. Staring at the beautiful, inviting colors of the soup he takes in a deep breath, allowing the aroma to fill his nostrils.

Is this what Heaven smells like?

He slowly and carefully scoops up a spoonful of soup. Making sure not to spill even a single drop. Finally, he takes a sip, feeling the warm soup go smoothly down into his stomach and warming him up.

Perfection! Xudong lets out tears of joy, shouting high praises for the soup, while enjoying each spoonful. Seeing this, Phoenix also smiles.

"Hey what is this?" Tyrmes points at a block of tofu neatly placed by his bowl.

"Apparently… You were supposed to commit suicide on it… remember?"

Tyrmes pauses for a moment as the words seep in.

"…"

"Brother, please you can't possibly take my words seriously like that. It was a figure of speech."

"That's your dinner by the way. Enjoy."

Tyrmes drops down dramatically and hugs Phoenix's leg with tearful puppy dog eyes. "Brother, this is too cruel! You can't just make your wonderful soup and not allow me to appreciate it properly!"

"I'm pretty sure you'd appreciate that piece of tofu more after you've smashed your head on it a few times."

"No please.." Tyrmes cries out. Phoenix tries to pull his leg away but Tyrmes stubbornly holds on.

Xudong continues to eat happily as if he didn't see or hear any of Termes's cries.

"..."

"..."

"Do you remember your wrongdoings?"

"I do!"

"There is a saying. Don't fly too close to the sun or you'll get burned. Do you understand?"

"I will engrave that phrase into my heart, Brother!"

Phoenix looks content with Tyrmes's words and hands him a bowl and spoon.

"I love you dearest brother!"

"Don't ever say it like that again."

As the soup is being enjoyed, Xudong continues his story.

"So you guys remembered how that ceremony went right?"

Tyrmes speaks with a mouthful of fish soup. "Yeah, that was when I first met Richard."

He looks at his shadow which suddenly begins to flicker. A black figure exactly like Tyrmes comes out of his shadow and waves before returning back into his shadow.

"Richard is basically a copy of me that hides within my shadow. He can do whatever I do and makes me stronger when he completely merges with me. He's never changed his form though, which is unusual for people with the same gift as mine."

"I heard that nobody truly has the exact same gift because everyone will pick a different route of improving their gift based on their own capabilities.

Anyways so during my ceremony. I was level 12 at the time…"

"Hold on. You said you were level 12? When you were ten? Wow you're just like Phoenix!"

Phoenix rolls his eyes. "That was a long time ago."

"Really... you were level 12? Didn't you say that you worked at a cosmetic shop though? I was only able to cultivate to level 12 because my parents had a really abundant amount of resources. The average kid without resources would only be around level 6 at 10."

Phoenix scratches his head. His face, slightly red with embarrassment. "I don't know. I always sat and tried to feel the energy in my surroundings without knowing anything about cultivation. I really wanted to be a warrior ya know? I wanted to be the first person to reach level 100.

But then I found out that my gift was Filter and I gave up on all of that. These last few years… I've been cleaning people's pores in my mom's workplace like all the other people with cosmetic gifts.

She even wanted me to take over her place! I couldn't bear to work at the store after that... I guess I realized that I didn't want my future to end there. With me working for my mom for the rest of my life.

After all of her nagging for me to do something with my life, I realized that the academy opens for free for 14 year olds. I literally booked it here as soon as I could."

A solemn expression appears on Xudong's face. "I feel it brother. I also wanted to be the first human to reach level 100. But during my ceremony, nothing happened at all. I felt nothing special. No powers bubbling up. No blinding flashes of light. Nothing. And like that, all of my dreams were shattered. It was the most painful day of my life…"

"You can't just not have a gift. Everyone has to have one." Phoenix looks unresigned.

"Like you, I gave up after the ceremony. One day I couldn't take my parents comparing me to my younger sister and I ran away from home. I was too ashamed of myself to return. I've been living on the streets for three years, taking whatever kind of job I could find... basically struggling with just fulfilling basic living needs. There's not many people who would take in a messy 11 year old kid to work out of nowhere. A few days ago, one of my friends on the streets told me to take a chance and join the academy. He told me that I was too young to spend my future out on the streets and that's how I found myself here." Xudong said tearfully, as if he was thinking about home.

"Sniff, Sniff…" Tyrmes gets emotional as he hears their story. "You two were destined to meet! You bastards are both equally pitiful! It's totally disgusting and touching that I can't take any more of this with a straight face anymore!"

"What about you Tyrmes?" Xudong asks.

"What about me?"

"Surely you've had it hard as well if you're in F-class with us."

"Well… the truth is… I hid my strength to follow Phoenix to F-Grade."

"Why were you following Phoenix?"

"Because we're friends."

"You don't have your own dreams or expectations going to this school?"

"...I've never really thought too much about it to be honest… I thought if I follow Phoenix, eventually I'll find something that interests me."

Xudong frowned. "...So… even when you were young, you had no dreams or anything at all?"

Phoenix could tell that Tyrmes was thinking really hard on the questions. His brows were furrowed as he looked down at his bowl.

Finally, Tyrmes spoke. "When I was young I wanted to be a dad."

"..."

"...a what?"

"This is the first time I've heard of this. Why did you want to be a dad?" Phoenix asks.

"I was always thinking about my dad. My dad and Phoenix's dad both died in military service."

"..." Xudong was surprised to find that Phoenix didn't look too affected when Tyrmes brought up their dads.

"For that reason, I was always thinking about what I would be as a dad. I wouldn't go to war, I'd stay home and play with my kids all day. I was so psyched about wanting to be a dad that I blurted it out loud once and some kids heard me. Back then, I had this rash problem and so I was bald. And so the kids would already call me ugly and bald. When some of them heard me say that I wanted to be a dad…"

"Was that?" Phoenix asks.

"Yeah… the kids that overheard me told me that I would never be a dad because I would never have kids if I was bald and ugly. That hurt me a lot back then. Usually I would just ignore their taunting because mom told me not to. But that day I decided that I'd had enough and stood up to them for the first time..."

"And then what happened?"

"I got beat up. They decided it was fun to beat me up since one of the kids was a son of an aristocratic family, they wouldn't get in trouble. So they did it every day.

Phoenix was really popular at the time. Since our families were really close and we'd see each other once in a while, when he heard that I was getting beat up, he told them to stop it. Phoenix was naturally the smartest and strongest kid there. None of us had gifts back then, so naturally, they would respect Phoenix. So the kids who were bullying me told him they would stop.

But they would secretly do it when Phoenix wasn't there. Phoenix caught them again shortly after and-"

"I drop-kicked him off the playground set and he hit his head." Phoenix laughs uproariously as he recalls it before continuing.

"I got in trouble with the adults. The kid went home and told his dad but I guess because our dads died in service, he couldn't really do anything or it'd make him look bad. The kid came back to school and we called him 'bighead' because his head was swollen. It was all a good laugh."

Tyrmes smiles. "And that's when I decided to follow Phoenix. My dream was hit with reality so I decided to kick it with Phoenix until something interested me."

"He kept following me and talking about fashion. It was horrible. I eventually decided to wear thrift clothes to spite him."

"What happened to 'bighead'?"

"He goes here. We'll probably see him tomorrow."

Phoenix laughs again. "I don't regret kicking his dumb head. He pretended to get along with me until we all had our gifts. And then he left."

"They all left?" Xudong asks.

"We're all that's left. The second everyone had awakened their gifts, he started to take charge. And that's how we got here." Stirring his soup slowly, Tyrmes finds that his soup has gone cold.

The three boys continue to sit there in silence. All of them could understand each other's emotions and troubles which brought them all closer together. The soup had gone cold. But they all felt warm inside.

"This is the first day I've met you two and I already feel like we've been sworn brothers for life!"

"I was thinking the same! This magical pot of soup brought us closer together. From now on, we are making it a habit to have hotpot together! I'll cook!"

"I love Brother Phoenix's hotpot! I'd eat it everyday if I could!"

The three boys's cheers echo throughout the empty building.

"Say, Phoenix?"

"What?"

"What if we were to train again like when you were ten? We never know what might happen. We're here we shouldn't waste the opportunity." Tyrmes suggests after thinking for a while.

"Yeah who knows, we might all reach level 100 together. All of us grade F's!" Everyone laughs uproariously.

"I'm down if you're all down! There's only one direction you can go from rock bottom, and that's up!" Phoenix smiles. It had been a long time since he was able to open up about his past. It made him feel warm inside. He didn't expect to make a friend so quickly in school either. Maybe his mom was right in making him go here.

I wonder how Mom and Little Bro are doing. Phoenix thinks as he is washing the pot.

This feeling of independence, without any nagging, is the best! Finally, peace at least...

"By the way, you said you ran away from your family because of your sister?"

"...Yeah…"

"Was she that much better than you?"

"When she turned ten, she was level 16."

"What the heck!"

"How is that even possible?"

"I have no idea…"

"Who is this sister making our brother look bad? We should go teach her a lesson!" Phoenix jokes.

Xudong shakes his head, "She's had 3 years and an actual combat gift… I'm not sure we'd win even if we all fought together…"

Phoenix checks the time on his watch. "Alright, we have class early tomorrow. We should go to sleep now if we want to wake up and still keep our sanity."

The three agree to go to sleep. The flat had many bedrooms so they picked whichever room they wanted. After showering, they changed clothes and fell asleep almost immediately. Loud snores could be heard from the 1F throughout the night.

….

At Phoenix's household.

"He did what? Oh my poor son…" Phoenix's mom wails as she gets a message from one of her friends. Her friend said that she saw Phoenix in front of Griffin Academy.

She trembles as she reads the message.

"Quill!"

"Yes mom?"

"Did you know your brother signed up for Griffin Academy?"

"Uhm.. Yeah."

"You do? Why?"

"Cause you told him to."

"I told him to go to a school. I didn't mean sign up for a prestigious school for warriors!"

"You kept talking about me going to Griffin academy and being proud that I'm going to be successful and stuff. That probably made him think that you wanted him to go to that school as well. You talk indirectly about him all the time. He probably took that as a hint."

Phoenix's mom sits down on the floor. She had just come from work and hadn't even taken off her makeup yet. But now her makeup was ruined by a stream of tears. She thinks about her poor son in that brutal academy with his gift which had no use in combat and cries.

"Waaaaah! My beautiful son is going to suffer… It's all my fault… I was too hard on him..hic..Husband… what do I do? What can I do without you?"

She looks at the altar in their living room. A picture of a young man with sharp brown eyes and a devilishly handsome smile was placed on the altar. The text on the picture frame read: In our hearts, Alexander.

"Hic… hic…" Phoenix's mom sits there in silence not knowing what to do. She stands up and goes to Phoenix's room.

The bed wasn't made. Phoenix hated making the bed. He always argued what was the point of making it if you're gonna come back and mess it up the next day.

She notices something left on his desk. It was a note.

I know you're gonna cry and you're gonna worry. So I wrote this note to reassure you that I will be fine. You're going to get unnecessary forehead wrinkles if you worry too much. And I know how much you avoid those to "preserve your youth". I know what I'm doing. And if I don't, I'll figure it out. So don't worry. For me, okay? I don't want to die from shock after I return home and see an 80-year old ghost for my mother. Oh yeah, and tell Quill that I said he's a butthead.

-your favorite son

"The heck did I do?" Quill asks as he reads the note.