Even if I was the sole person on the homefront who was aware of Riley’s infidelity, I was forced to act as a standard three-year-old would, full of childlike wonder and innocence, something that, as time went on, was becoming more and more difficult for me.
Living day to day in the body of my child self, I found myself becoming further disgusted as I was subjected to things I had no memory of, for instance, Amanda’s fake affection or being assaulted by family at every opportunity.
The only one whom I felt fine with receiving peppered kiss attacks from was the likes of Deeana, but when I laid eyes on Yumiko for the first time in decades, a plan began forming in my mind.
I knew better than most the back story behind Riley and the young Japanese girl, who was only 19 years of age.
Growing up in a very traditional family, when the gaijin *foreigner* came into her life, she was shown a side of the world she could only dream about.
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Noticing her eyes filled with innocence and wonder at his every word, Riley took advantage of it. After going through an entire Japanese wedding ceremony, something which is supposed to be permanent, and filling Yumiko’s head with empty promises he had no intention of keeping, he locked her down with a ring and marriage papers.
Surprisingly enough, I had plenty of memories of Yumiko, all of which revolved around her culture. Finally, I was able to speak about my shared interest in anime, especially as I grew older.
The two would stay together for years, and if my memory serves correctly, it would be around the time I was in 9th grade that she would inevitably file for divorce after catching him cheating on her.
That alone was grounds for termination of the marriage; however, there was more to the story than anyone knew about. The actual reason was that my older brother refused to give his wife the one thing she desperately wanted: a child.
For someone like Yumiko, who came from a background where if you weren’t married and had started a family by 25, it was practically a death sentence from her family, and in the end, she was disowned by her parents.
’He doesn’t deserve a loving wife like her,’ I thought while watching Yumiko run around and clean up after Riley like a good housewife.
’If I were older, I’d just steal her away and add her to my list of women. Unfortunately, at present, that is but an ideal wish; it is nothing more than a passing fancy since I can’t follow through.’ Thinking about my growth, or rather lack thereof, a small frown crept onto my childish face.
’It’s been two years, and I still look the same. Sure, I rapidly aged after completing my evolution to 6C; however, I seem to have stopped growing after reaching the size of a five-year-old… it’s concerning.’
Usually, this wouldn’t be too big of a deal to me, as I was only three, almost four years old, and already at a size befitting someone older than I was supposed to; you see, I had a slight complex that I didn’t particularly appreciate talking about.
It was a trauma of sorts that I had to deal with in my teenage years; in actuality, this wasn’t my first time going through something similar.
In the Origin Timeline, I was healthy and grew at the usual rate you would expect for a child, which unfortunately stopped around 6th or 7th grade when I was around 12 years old.
From then until the point I joined the military at 20 years old, I looked and sounded as if I was 12 or 13 years old; not only was I a chubby-cheeked, baby-faced little s**t, but I also stood at a whopping five foot 3 inches up until I was around 21.
I didn’t hit puberty until I was in basic training, and in about six months, I shot up nearly a foot and rapidly ’grew up’ until I ended up looking my actual age.
Knowing my anxiety around my inferiority, my father took me to multiple doctors, all of whom were pretty much stumped as to my lack of growth, and ended up stating it was an endocrinological disorder, which was a fancy way of saying they had no idea what was wrong.
Then there were my peers; let’s say I had a LONG Hitlist of all the bastards that caused my high school years to be miserable, and I was quite looking forward to getting my revenge.
Exhaling slowly and shaking my head, I cleared my mind of the bad memories from the Origin Timeline. At the same time, my eyes flicked back and forth between Deeana and Yumiko several times before eventually resting on my display panel, which showed me having 115 PC.
’This will take time, but it should work.’ Since everyone’s attention was on Brenden, the cake smasher, nobody noticed the twisted grin spread across my face as I looked at my stats, Skillbar and Talent Rank.
{Talent Rank: Alpha} *NEW*
{Currency: 1,000,000 USD, 947 (α-coins)} * -7,000,000 USD, -100 (Α-coins)*
{Talent Growth Rate: 33%} *4.5x Modifier*
{Physical Offense: 1.6} *+0.1*
{Physical Defense: 1.6} *+0.1*
{Meta Physical Offense: 4.26} *+.01*
[Skillbar]
{Available Slots at Alpha-Rank 7.}
{Slot 1: Talent Skill: (Major) Coersion}
{Slot 2: Talent Skill: (Major) Psy-Tag}
{Slot 3: Circulation Skill: (Minor) Hidden Vestiges of Physicality}
{Slot 4: (Minor) Augmentation 1st Stage} *NEW*
{Slot 5: (Minor) Telepathy}
{Slot 6: Empty}
{Slot 7: Empty} *NEW SLOT UNLOCKED*
That’s right; I had been using my two Talent Skills so often that after two years, both had increased to the (Major) attainment; not only that, but since I had completed a total of 10 circulations of my Hidden Vestiges of Physicality, I had seen some slight increases to not only my physical stats, but on one occasion I hit the proverbial jackpot, and got a tiny increase in my Meta Physical Offense.
But that wasn’t all; I’d say the biggest advancement I had made was in my Talent Rank, which had finally broken through to the Alpha-Rank and even earned me a new Talent Skill Slot, along with something I didn’t think I’d see until Beta-Rank, My Augmentation Skill, along with the added bonus of my Telepathy skill.