Hollywood Zenith

July 10, 1999.

Today, I am going to surprise Hannah. I received the gift some days ago and it looked amazing. I asked Oscar to pack it up nicely to make it more appealing.

I got up early today and greeted everyone at the dinner table. I reminded everyone of my routine and got ready to go out. Oscar will accompany me; It was Sunday, still, taking my parents first thing in the morning seemed like overkill. Ghost protection squad followed me as always.

We made our way toward Moore family home. The journey was uneventful and we reached the destination in about 30 min; I knocked on the door.

Aunt Carol opened up the door surprised by my visit. I quietly let myself in and quickly explained my plan.

I went to the living room to see Hannah watching Cartoons on TV and sneaked up to her.

" Happy Birthday, little sister. " I said.

She turned back, surprised by the whole ordeal.

" Big Brother, when did you get here? " she said with an agape expression.

"Lets go! I will take you out today, where do you want to go first? I have prepared a place near here. We can go out to play first and come here to celebrate. What do you say? " I said in a single breath trying to contain my excitement.

" Alright big brother but I was going to big sister first, I want to tell her about everything that happened this past month. " she said solemly.

I nodded and told her I would accompany her, and then we would go out to a party in the nearby cafe. I told her to get ready and left her to her own devices. I also invited her parents, but they said that we should enjoy ourselves; they had to prepare for tonight's party with family and friends. It's been a long time since everyone gathered for a happy occasion. It was understandable, so I didn't push the issue further.

After half an hour Hannah came downstairs; she had a white dress on which looked cute.

" You look lovely today, princess." I said and gave her a short bow and extended my hand.

It made her smile bashfully as she held my hand. We went toward the car to made our way to the cemetery.

Hannah talked about a lot of things to Elise's grave; she also prepared white flowers, which she gently placed beside the grave. We spent an hour there; I also conveyed my Thanks in person to Elise for her gift. We spent another hour on the bench beside the cemetery talking about various topics and exited the area after a relaxing morning hour.

I took her back toward her home and ordered to go toward the nearby cafe, which was booked for her birthday surprise; I also hinted at Hannah for a special gift which I prepared for her, which made her visibly excited.

As, we got out of the car; we heard some shouting coming from the back alley of the restaurant. I looked at Oscar, who was in the front seat, and we made our way toward the alley. I held Hannah's hand and told her to always stay behind me.

As we entered the alley, we saw several boys and girls who seemed to be about the age of 14-15 years surrounding a little girl, berating her and spewing profanities.

I frowned; I had never seen bullying in real life, but I couldn't sit still seeing it happening in front of me. I went up to the crowd and said--

" Hey , why are you pestering a little girl? Have you got no shame doing such horrendous things?"

Everyone turned toward me with an annoyed look but got surprised by my appearance. I dressed up nicely for the occasion with my hair tied behind me, which definitely made me look like some rich kid. The leader got more annoyed as he looked toward me; visibly upset by my appearance, which seemed to tick him off.

" Hey, hey, look, a rich kid came to save you. Even ugly duckling like you get lucky sometime, right Adele. We should teach this brat not to interfere in our business and make an example for the future. " he said.

" But boss, He seems like a rich person's kid. We may find ourself touble later down the line. " his lackey said.

" Yes boss, He also looks cute, it would be a shame to ruin his face. " A girl in the back said, which made the leader even mad.

" What are you worried about, he only has one person following him; we can easily outnumber him. We only have one witness here and that is the ugly duckling. I will make sure she never opens her mouth about this to anyone." The leader said; trying to rally up his troops.

Hannah seemed worried about the situation, but I calmed her down. I was confident fighting a bunch of kids, this will be a great opportunity to test my power level and magic title.

Before anyone could react, I activated " Otherworlder" along with my active fighting title and rushed in. Oscar screamed at my proactiveness and followed suit; he was somewhat trained in martial arts as it was compulsory for Rothchild household.

I ran, lightening fast and landed a punch on their leader's abdomen. It all happened, so fast that no one from their side could react. I was also surprised; I never tested the ability, but I was feeling like I could climb the one-story building in one step, but I controlled the feeling in my body and calmed the magic force. I withheld my punch as much as I could, but it still knocked him out and made his body fly a few meters.

Everyone screamed and scattered in all directions, even leaving their leader on the cold hard floor. They looked extremely scared and I added fuel to the fire by saying, I would hunt them down if they ever bothered the little girl again.

" Young master, don't ever do this again. I was so scared, if anything happened to you, I-i-i " Oscar struggled to say the next phase. I have to admit, I was a little rash. I apologized profusely.

David from the ghost team also came a few seconds later; he had seen the situation from far. He thought that Oscar would descalate the situation by seeing me act made him worried, but he was proud that his lectures came in handy. I never sparred, but whenever I visited their training area, he would sit me down, and give me a commentary, explaining what others were doing.

We walked up to the little girl who was shaking near the dustbin in a corner. I walked up to her and grabbed her hand to help her up. She had messy hair covering her face and small cuts over her hands. She also dirtied her clothes in the water puddle by the side of the road.

" Are you okay? you look hurt. " I said, trying to calm her down.

" y-yes, I-I am o-okay." She was stuttering because of the shaking. She was looking at the lower cloth which got dirty while I was helping her. She abruptly got down and started cleaning. I immediately stopped her.

" What are you doing? It is okay, don't worry about it. I don't mind. " I said.

" N-no, you got dirty because of me--" She said struggling, trying to continue, but I held her and hugged her tightly. I did it impulsively, trying to make her understand; I could feel her fear through her disoriented senses.

" See, I don't mind. Come, Oscar will give you first-aid. You will not have to go through it again, alright? " I said, gesturing her to follow.