#2

With a satisfied sigh, I put my tools back in their box and took it to the gardener's shed. It's probably a hundred-year-old wooden structure, small, with around 132 square feet where we keep various things, such as tools... and that's it. Damn, this door makes creepy noises; I should probably fix it... along with the leaking roof... and the crumbling walls. I should demolish this cursed thing before it falls on someone's head and build something better.

Anyway, I already spent my entire morning on the heater, so I'll do it later. I have friends to play with and school to attend. Ah, that's another thing these other protagonists got wrong: elementary school is the best, and I ain't hiding from nobody. Anyway, let's go back inside and enjoy a nice warm building with nothing to worry about...

"Listen here, sweet cheeks. You better start getting smart. Me and my boys here are in need of financial support, and we hear that this pretty little place doesn't pay protection money." Oh goody, thugs.

Let's see: five guys, spiked clubs, leather jackets with green snakes on the back, and jet-black hair styled to resemble Elvis. Yeah, rookies. Why'd I expect some big boys to suddenly show up at my doorstep? Anyway, let's intervene before they hurt Ms. Garcia, whom they look ready to do nasty things to.

"HEY, YOU BUNCH OF PISSANTS!" I yell as I walk their way with my best swagger of a criminal punk. "DIDN'T YOUR MOMMA TEACH YOU HOW TO TREAT A LADY, YOU FUCKS?!" I ask, still yelling and now in front of them.

"Who the fuck is this kid?" one of the punks asked, clearly not recognizing my greatness.

"Victor, go back inside, now!" Ah, Margaret, I know you're worried about the safety of these poor blokes, but they need to learn, and I'm the best teacher they'll ever have.

"Yeah, kid, go back inside and let the adults talk," the supposed leader threatened me with his club.

I just laughed—not a scared laugh, much less a sarcastic one. I'm genuinely laughing at these bitches acting tough, which they clearly understood as they're moved to teach me a lesson and scare Ms. Garcia. But you see, I'm not going to fight them head-on; I'm still ten years old, after all, so that's what I did.

First, before they could react, I fished a sealed glass vial from the pocket of my jacket. There's a reddish substance inside it, and that's my very secret, very powerful weapon of mass destruction. So I threw it at the leader's face, breaking the glass and revealing the substance to be actually gaseous. It spread quickly in a red cloud, enveloping all of us except Ms. Garcia, who retreated. She learned well. Anyway, what's my killing substance and why'd I let myself get caught in it?

Modified pepper spray, made to last weeks without any treatment. And why am I unbothered? Cloth mask, using my jacket to protect myself. Yeah, not so strong when basic cloth can protect you, but really efficient when hitting the target directly.

Anyway, exiting the cloud, I made my way to Ms. Garcia, putting back my jacket. "Did they hurt you?" Now, I'm all about not caring for others, but I care a lot for my family at the orphanage.

"No, and they weren't going to do it," she said softly before looking at the wannabes lying on the ground moaning. "I'll call Mr. Rogers," she sighed before going inside.

Ah, Mr. Rogers—a sweet man who works here as the groundskeeper, janitor, and security. He treats all of us in the orphanage as his own children and is a hulking mass of black muscles that towers over anyone shorter than 6'9". Yeah... and husband of Ms. Garcia. Goddammit!

"Hey, kiddo." Mr. Rogers, what a soothing voice you have for someone capable of squeezing the juices out of my head with his bare hands.

"Hey, Roy, lovely day, innit?" I waved at him, restraining the last thug with some zip cuffs.

"It sure is," he said lightheartedly, before dragging all five thugs as if they were weightless. "Go take a bath, kiddo; you look awful." Yeah, fuck you too.

Now, while I'm making my way to the bathroom, let's address the elephant in the room: why are they taking all this so casually? Because I'm no shy bitch, showing them I'm superior in every way... or I will be anyway, once I fully develop my body. And why am I not describing the place? I'm not your momma that does everything you want, I'm your goddamn daddy so use your imagination.

Anyway, after a good bath, I put on some loose clothes and went to the kitchen, full of children of various ages talking, screaming, laughing, crying, or all at once. Ah, I love this atmosphere—so lovely and full of life. Damn Isekai protagonists, you guys don't hit one in, huh?

"Hey, Vic!" Ah, that's my gang calling, my ride-or-die friends.

"Sup," I said casually, sitting between them with a plate full of food. Another thing that is easily available to everyone here thanks to me and my power of making things work with dreams and spit.

Huh? You wanna know what I did? Ain't telling ya, I have a profound conversation to be part of.

"So, we all made a little thinking, and we all came to an agreement..." Finally, these fools are seeing reason. "We all agree that the T-Rex is cooler." Or not.

"You fools! The Brachiosaurus is way cooler. He's so tall that he can flatten a T-Rex with his feet and not feel it!" Now, that isn't true, but it's not beyond me to lie so that I can win something.

"Nuh-uh." Damn, how does one come up with such a solid argument in their childhood years?

"What do you mean 'nuh-uh'?" Yeah, still to this day I can't wrap my head around the power of these words to simply destroy any argument one can have.

This went on for hours before we all got outside to continue and got distracted by a squirrel throwing a nut at our heads. We then ran after it until we all collapsed, exhausted, laying in the grass, and decided to look at the sky.

"That cloud looks like a duck," said Kyle, my main man.

"You're kidding, right? That's clearly a rabbit," Helen, the girl boss who put many boys to shame, replied.

I won't be part of this argument; one shan't involve oneself in lovers' discussions, after all. Yeah, I ship them, sue me for liking wholesome childhood love. Anyway, what else should I do today? I'm in no mood to go around judging the poor conditions of the orphanage... Well, things aren't that bad, but I'm a perfectionist, and every crack brings me discomfort.

I think I'll let the day pass by doing nothing—aka playing around with my friends and lazing around. Yeah, sounds like a good plan, a solid plan. There's also school, but I'll breeze through it, it's not like I go there to learn or something. Can you imagine? Learning? In school? Great joke right there.