Sai Tama felt his blood pressure rise up as he stared at Bucky Barnes from the toes of his feet to the top of his head. There was no way he wouldn't be angry after everything Bucky Barnes did, interrupting his precious spotlight like that. But then again, it's not like he could straight out attack him in the middle of the crowd. What would that tell the students— that the principal of the United Superheroes Academy had a short fuse?
Despite the urge to engage Bucky Barnes in a fight, Sai Tama decided to hold himself back as he exhaled deeply. It took him a couple of seconds before he finally calmed down, and by the time he did so, Bucky Barnes was already long gone, vanished into thin air.
Now that he thought about it, however, he realized that Bucky Barnes exuded a threatening presence. Sai Tama could tell that Bucky Barnes was far stronger than him. It was an undeniable fact.
Suddenly, another dimensional portal appeared in front of Sai Tama, and the head of Bucky Barnes peeked out of it, much to everyone's surprise. "Um, excuse me, I'm taking Jonathan as well if you don't mind?" Bucky Barnes asked with a straight face, but his voice fluctuated as if he was asking for a favor.
And since Sai Tama wanted to show a good reputation in front of his students, he decided to nod his head and give Bucky Barnes permission to take Jonathan with him. "Sure, just please make sure that he won't miss his first class." Sai Tama said with a relaxed tone.
"Once again, if you'll excuse me." Bucky Barnes called out, smiling as he beckoned for Jonathan to come with him. "Oh, and also, would you mind if I took Satoshi as well? I kind of need him at the moment."
Sai Tama had had enough of Bucky Barnes's presence. At that point, he wanted to lash out at him for taking his sweet time. However, he had a reputation to hold up— that's why he just nodded it off. This time, he was the one to nod at Satoshi, gesturing for him to go with Bucky Barnes so they could scoot out of there.
"Thanks, I'll bring them back as soon as I can. I deeply apologize for the disturbance." Bucky Barnes said in a light-hearted manner. As soon as Satoshi jumped into his dimensional portal, it closed, leaving everyone in the school grounds bewildered.
A silent gust of wind passed through the crowd, emphasizing the awkward pause that befell everyone. Five seconds later, Sai Tama got back to his senses and he cleared his throat. "Now, where were we?" He asked, heading back to the stage so he could proceed with the orientation. It's as if nothing happened, and he continued speaking.
...
Meanwhile, in another dimension.
Since Satoshi was the last one to jump into the dimensional portal, he was also the last one to admire the picturesque view that greeted him as soon as he opened his eyes. A gasp of awe escaped his mouth while he gazed at the scenery, and Jonathan and Yun Zhe was no different.
The scenery was unlike any other they'd seen. They were standing in the middle of a huge metallic circle that floated in empty space. This metallic circle had some sort of runic symbols running through it in circles. Satoshi had no idea what they meant, but they seemed to be important.
Structures with a metallic sheen littered the entire circle. As for the sky, it was grayish black, and countless auroras filled its beauty, enveloping the myriad of stars with a blanket of many colors.
"Whoa~, am I right?" Bucky Barnes let out, shaking his hand in front of him as he teased the trio. "Oh, now that I think about it... the three of you haven't been here before, right? Welcome to our dimension.
Now that Satoshi got a good look at the sky, he noticed that there were other circles floating all over the place as well. These circles have different sizes. And judging from its unclear shadows, he concluded that there were different structures on top of the circles as well.
As it turned out, these circles were part of a systematic place, and these circles orbit a huge planet at the bottom of it. The reason why Satoshi and the others couldn't see this planet was that it was a dark rocky, barren planet. They could see the mother star though, a bright blue orb from afar, shining through the skies as the closest star.
"Welcome to my humble abode. I guess this isn't the time for greetings. We all know why we're here, right?" Bucky Barnes clasped his hands together as he addressed the three.
Honestly, the trio had no idea why they were brought here in the first place. Satoshi had an inkling though, that they were summoned because of Jana's death. From what he could remember, she was also a disciple of Bucky Barnes.
Upon seeing the confused expression of the three, he turned around and let out a slight chuckle. He wasn't laughing because he found the situation funny, but because this was the first time he saw all three of them confused.
"Well, let's talk about this. Follow." He said signaling for the three of them to follow him as he walked towards a structure located in the middle of the circular platform where they were. "Welcome to my house. And yes, if you think we Managers don't have normal lives... then you thought wrong. We have lives too, you know."
"You have a wife?" Yun Zhe asked out of nowhere. For a moment, he forgot about their circumstance, also forgetting that Jonathan was right beside him.
"I wish. Why must you hurt me in this way, Yun Zhe." Bucky Barnes responded. Once they got to the front part of his house, he opened the door for all of them. "Now, don't be shy. Come in. We have a lot of things to talk about."
"If you're going to talk to us about Jonathan, then we're all for it. But he murdered someone in cold blood. I for one won't forgive him." Yun Zhe crossed his arm but he stepped forward anyways.
"You don't have to. Once you come to realize what really transpired, once you realize what really went down that led to her death... you don't have to forgive him. Forgiveness is... unnecessary." Bucky Barnes continued, plastering a smile on his face.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺