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Seven’s day started off fairly productive, he’d like to think.
A talk with Mo and Krill in regards to his needs for new tunnels went well, and after the two negotiated the price for it, Seven went on to take a few commissions from the duo shall we say.
The visionary’s not really someone who’d kill for fun, but money’s money.
He was just on his way back, only for them to find him first with grim looks on their faces.
“The OSIC found my hideout!?” Seven snarled, equal parts indignant and furious.
“Unfortunately, yes, ransacked it to hell and back too.” Krill solemnly confirmed, causing the serial killer to wince. “We just got back and heard news from fellow peddlers ourselves. Now, normally we’d get to work right away on new tunnels after you pay us, but with the OSIC poking their nose around here…”
“You guys will have to postpone and stay out of sight till they’re gone, I get it.” Seven replied, exasperated but resigned. “Well, I’ve got the money right here, so take it. I’ll have to find a place to hide and shake them off my tail, and once I do, I expect my new tunnels to be worked on if not already finished.”
“We’ll make sure of it, consider it done.” Krill said as Mo took the money from Seven’s hands, the mole counting said money to make sure it’s the right amount before nodding towards Krill. “Pleasure doing business with you, Seven, and good luck.”
Unfortunately for Seven, his luck was in fact not good like the two wished.
He only took a few steps out of the sewers, using an exit point he’s sure was as far away from his exposed hideout as possible, and had to immediately cartwheel away from gunfire.
“Damnation!” Seven cursed as he sprinted off into a nearby alley, and the chase was on.
The OSIC agents were quite well equipped to deal with him this time around, as despite his multitudes of ball lightnings and electric-infused bullets fired at them to cripple their pursuit, they were taking far less damage than he expected them to. If he had to guess, they wised up against his spirit-based abilities with spirit resistant equipment.
“Oh, to hell with this…” Seven growled a few minutes into the chase, as electricity crackled around his body before walling jumping then double jumping into the air to gain height.
Hopefully this’d deter their pursuit for a bit.
“Run, cowards!” Seven yelled as he unleashed his ultimate ability, Storm Cloud, sending bolts of lightning everywhere. He could hear what sounded like several OSIC agents cursing in anger and fear as they all quickly dove for cover. Some didn’t do it quickly enough and soon became smoking corpses on the ground.
He made sure that all OSIC agents were either dead or out of sight, before cancelling his ultimate early and mantling up onto the roof of a building. From there, he leapt across multiple rooftops, frantically looking around and trying to think of a good place to hide.
“Damnit, I don’t remember any hiding spots around here…” Seven muttered in dismay as he frantically looked around. While he couldn’t see any OSIC agents for the time being, he knew that they rarely ever gave up easily like that, especially when their target was him.
He almost jumped out of his nonexistent skin when an echoey childish voice called out.
“Over here~!” As Seven whipped around, he did a double take. A pair of glowing blue eyes was staring at him from an air vent conveniently big enough for him to crawl into.
“Quickly, in this hole!” Something from said air vent spoke, before dipping down out of sight.
For a very brief moment, Seven hesitated and wondered if he could trust whatever he just saw, but he quickly scrambled towards the air vent and carefully crawled backwards into it.
Around half a minute later, a group of OSIC agents appeared on the same rooftop the criminal was just at, their leader cursing again as they could find no signs of him in sight.
“Goddamn it all! Why did no one use knockdown on him when he was ulting!?”
“All of us who had the item were fried we could get it off, boss…”
“Ugh, incompetent fools, all of you!”
Once Seven found himself at the bottom of said vent, he found the thing from earlier waiting.
‘What the hell am I looking at?’
The little critter in front of him was, in all likelihood, a supernatural being. Covered in black fur, he’d say this creature reminded him of a rat, except it also had a beak on its face. It’s also wearing a set of pajamas that covered only the top half of his body, holding a pillow in one paw and a bedstand candle in another. The most striking features were its glowing blue eyes, gazing up at him with what appeared to be a mix of curiosity and innocence.
‘Did I just get saved by a kid of all things?’
“Woah, you’re scary.” It spoke, tone honest yet lacking any negative undertone.
Despite being caught off guard by its appearance, Seven found himself snorting.
‘Yep, definitely a kid. Only children could be that brutally honest without sounding judgmental.’
“And you just rescued me. I believe a thank you is in order, creature.” He spoke cordially.
“My name’s Rem!” Huffed the child, sounding a bit annoyed at being referred to as “creature”, before perking up. “And you’re welcome, mister…?”
“Call me Seven.”
“Like, a number? Why are you named after a number?” Rem asked, tilting his head cutely.
“It’s a long and boring story.”
“Okay, I don’t care then!” Rem chirped cheerfully, causing Seven to huff in amusement. “So, earlier I saw you were running from a group of weird people, it was awesome! They were like PEW PEW PEW! And you were like BZZT!”
“You saw all that?” Seven asked, baffled at the child’s enthusiasm.
“Mhm! Though I had to hide when you started going all spazzy and stormy, your lightning bolt kinda hurts…” The creature said with a pout. “But that’s okay! I just need to nap for a few seconds, and then it’s no hurty anymore!”
‘Healing powers… through napping for seconds at a time?’ Seven wondered, bewildered.
“I can also do it to others too, watch~!” Rem bragged, as he suddenly floated in the air and then flied towards Seven in a cloud of blue smoke.
Completely taken back, Seven reeled back a step as the creature passed through him, only to find himself blinking in shock he felt a soothing sensation cover his body. He watched, fascinated, as the bullet wounds started closing themselves in front of his eyes.
A sound of snoring behind him then alerted him to a sight of Rem sleeping right there on a floating pillow, looking as if he had already been deep asleep for some time despite him being awake just a few seconds ago.
Shortly afterwards, Seven felt the healing stopped as Rem disappeared only to “pop” out in front of him, before the little creature turned around and made a goofy showoff pose.
“Tada~! Do you feel no hurty anymore?” Rem chirped, looking super proud of himself.
‘Fascinating. Healing yourself and another person by taking a few seconds nap beside them… certainly an odd way to heal, but I’ve seen stranger methods.’ Seven mentally analyzed.
“Indeed. My thanks, Rem.” Seven spoke gratefully, looking over where he previously had wounds, before turning to the child with a sudden question. “…You do know what happened to all those who were hit by my lightnings for too long, right?”
“Uh huh! Some of them are dead now.” Rem answered matter-of-factly while nodding, as if killing people is just a normal occurrence to the kid. “I know that sometimes, you have to kill or be killed, and that some people will force you do either…”
‘I’m not sure whether to be horrified or impressed that a child is that nonchalant about killing.’
“But anyway! Do you want to see my bedroom!?” The critter suddenly asked excitedly.
“You’ve just met me, and you’re showing me to your bedroom already?” Seven asked, incredulous. “Haven’t your parents ever taught you to not trust strangers, child?”
“Yeah! But that’s because I was still with them…” Rem answered, his mood dampening considerably as he considered his next words. “I miss my family, it’s so lonely out here… so I want to make a friend or two before I get home! And to do that, I have to talk to strangers, so that the strangers can become my friends! Like you!”
‘That’s a dangerously naïve mindset, child.’ Seven thought to himself with a surprising amount of concern for Rem, in spite of himself.
‘And since when are we even friends, we just met??’
“Do you even know how to get home, Rem?” The self-proclaimed visionary asked.
At that, Rem nodded seriously… and pulled out a banner.
Not just any banner.
Banner of the Hidden King.
“I summon Patron, then I go home!” Rem exclaimed confidently.
For his part, the serial killer found himself equal parts shocked and horrified.
“You’re participating in the ritual yourself, Rem?” Seven blurted out after a few seconds of silence.
“Yep!” The kid confirmed, before tilting his head. “Are you also participating in it, Mister Seven?”
Wordlessly, the guy pulled out an identical banner, causing Rem to gasp in joy.
“We’re going to be teammates!!” The critter whooped as he started running in circles around Seven. “That gives me even more reason to trust you and show you my bedroom! It’s over here, Mister Seven, follow me!!”
And with that, Rem ran off further into the air vent, snapping Seven out of his shock as the criminal ran after him.
‘Oh God, I’m going into a slaughter fest, and one of my teammates is a literal child!? Even if he has healing abilities, what the fuck was the Hidden King thinking, recruiting a kid into this!?’
And from that point onwards, Seven’s life was never the same.