The Reincarnated Hitman

Chapter 15: A Parent And A Brother

The moment Liam and Eli stepped out of the apartment, Lea fully turned her attention from the TV to Noa sitting opposite her.

"If you truly are not my brother’s girlfriend," she said suddenly, "then why did he bring you home?"

She had a look of suspicion on her face as she looked at the girl sitting opposite her.

"Because the big brother I know wouldn’t just bring anyone home."

Noa was internally flustered by the sudden questioning, but none of it showed in her expression.

".... I’m his friend," she answered after a while.

She couldn’t tell how they actually met because Liam had already warned that he’d kill her if she did.

"Big brother doesn’t have friends," Lea said, looking a bit down, "he hasn’t had any since he decided to drop out of school."

Noa looked at Lea’s expression with a complicated look. She wanted to pat the girl’s head, but she wasn’t sure whether that would be appropriate.

In the end, she just decided to say, "Your brother saved me."

"What?" Lea seemed a bit confused as she looked at her.

"Hmm," Noa nodded as she leaned back on the couch and looked up at the peeled ceiling, "he saved me from some really bad men."

"Is that so?" Lea muttered as she also leaned and looked up at the ceiling, "I guess that’s just how big brother is."

The two were silent for a while as they continued looking at the ceiling for a while, before Noa broke the silence.

"Can you tell me about him?" She said. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"Hmm?" Lea turned to her in question.

"Your brother, what’s he like?" She repeated, also turning to Lea.

Lea let out a sigh, before looking down at her hands resting on her lap, almost as if she was getting her thoughts together, before she started.

"For as long as I can remember, big brother’s always been like a parent to us," she said, "even when our parents were still alive."

Noa silently listened as she spoke.

"Though they were good parents, they were too busy to properly take care of us," Lea added, "so that responsibility naturally fell on him."

"It became even more so after their deaths," a frown appeared on her face as she spoke, "and big brother was forced to grow up."

Noa carefully studied Lea’s expression, noticing that she seemed a bit angry saying that, but she didn’t comment.

"Our damned relatives never showed up after the funeral," Lea continued, "not after making sure we were left with nothing."

She then lifted both feet on the couch and rested her chin on it.

"The government wasn’t much help either, so big brother was forced to take care of Eli and me, alone."

"And since then, it had been a sacrifice after the other," Lea added, "he first dropped out of school, and then he picked up multiple jobs."

She let out a heavy sigh, "and even through that, he never once stopped smiling and making bad jokes."

"And honestly," she added, "it used to make me angry."

"Angry?" Noa asked, a bit confused

Hmm," Lea nodded in response.

"I used to wish he’d just break down once, just so he knew he wasn’t carrying it all alone," she said, "because if he broke down then I could do something, I could be there for him the way he was always there for us."

She exhaled slowly, as she buried her face in the space between her chest and raised feet, "but he never gave me the chance."

She then peeked at Noa before asking, "Quite selfish of me, right?"

Noa was silent for a while, thinking of an answer to that before finally saying, "I don’t know."

Lea was a bit surprised at the answer, but she wasn’t done yet.

"But I don’t think wanting someone to rely on you, even just a little bit, is selfish."

Lea continued looking at her for a while before chuckling, "You’re pretty bad at this."

"Am I?" Noa asked.

"Yeah," Lea said before chuckling, "but you’re a pretty good listener."

"I see," Noa said again before looking towards the TV before them.

Lea chuckled again, finding Noa’s blank expression surprisingly amusing, then, as if suddenly remembering something, she said, "Ah, but you absolutely must not tell big brother what I just told you."

"I won’t," Noa replied with a nod, and silence returned between the two again.

"Your big brother is pretty cool, huh?" She suddenly muttered.

She still recalled seeing what he did to those men with what could barely be considered a Factor, and she couldn’t help but say.

Lea, completely unaware of what she was thinking of when she said that, looked at Noa in surprise.

From her expressions so far, or rather, the lack of one, Lea hadn’t expected her to say something like that.

"I wouldn’t say cool," Lea muttered after a while, "after all, he still makes those corny jokes."

She then rested her head on her knees again before adding, "But he’s a pretty awesome, big brother."

"What about you?" She turned towards Noa after a while, "How did you meet those bad men big brother saved you from?"

"Well—"

Noa was about to say something when she suddenly stopped, grabbed Lea, and forced her towards the ground.

Lea was a bit confused by the sudden sequence of events, but the next second,

BOOM!

Something crashed through their wall and straight through the spot where she was previously sitting.

"Run," Noa said in a low voice as she slowly stood up.

Lea’s panicked mind was filled with questions, but then again, she knew when to ask them, and now was definitely not the time.

She stood up and was about to run when something suddenly flashed past her and stopped directly in her tracks.

"Not so fast, love," it was a woman in a black bodysuit that had the logo of a looping silver ring on her left chest.

The woman had dark chocolate colored skin, a head full of curly black hair that was neatly tied back, and bright silver eyes.

She had a gentle smile on her face as she quickly reached out and grabbed Lea’s wrist, immediately causing her to struggle.

"Let go—"

"Shh," the woman said pleasantly, as if she were calming a child, "we won’t hurt you."

She paused before turning towards the hole blasted in the wall and muttering, "Well, he might."

"Noa! Darling!" A voice came through the dust cloud by the hole as someone seemed to step through, "Did you miss me?"

Noa’s eyes immediately widened, and her body immediately froze in place....so much so that she even forgot to activate her Factor,

And the only thing she could say was,

"N-No."