Outside the house, we walked to the neighbors' house. It was similar to ours. My father knocked on the door, and less than two minutes later, a woman with brown hair streaked with a few gray strands appeared.
"Hello, Miss May. Is your nephew ready?" my father asked with a smile.
"Gabriel is already coming. And you must be Adrian, correct?"
She greeted my father and then lowered her head to speak to me.
"Yes, it's a pleasure, Miss May."
I greeted her politely.
"Such a polite boy! You can call me Aunt May."
She lightly touched my hair.
"Okay, Aunt May!"
I replied with a cute smile.
As she invited us in, we heard footsteps. A man with brown hair streaked with gray, similar to Aunt May, appeared, followed by a very cute little boy with brown hair and brown eyes. He seemed a little shy.
"Ben, Peter, you're already down. Adrian and Gabriel are waiting."
"Good to see you again, Gabriel. And this must be Adrian."
The man greeted us both, and my father started chatting with Uncle Ben. Meanwhile, I focused on my new neighbor… He was so cute! I could feel such a gentle and kind aura from him. Even my Haki conveyed this feeling—even towards children.
He seemed shy, so I let go of my father's hand and took his instead, smiling.
"A pleasure to meet you! I'm Adrian!"
"Nice to meet you. I'm Fr… Peter."
He stumbled a little over his words but managed to say his name, his cheeks flushing slightly with embarrassment.
Unbeknownst to me, a thought was passing through his mind.
'So beautiful… Could he be to me what Aunt May is to Uncle Ben? A life partner, I think Uncle called Aunt…'
A childish, innocent thought formed in his mind, with no deeper meaning—for now.
In front of the school gate, my father kissed my forehead and whispered in my ear.
"My love, I'm dropping you off now. Mom should pick you up later, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy."
Then, glancing at Peter beside me, he added:
"Umm… I don't want to ask too much of you because I have a bad feeling for some reason… but keep an eye on Peter too. You're more mature than other kids your age."
"Okay."
I didn't fully understand the first part, but I accepted the second. After saying goodbye, I took the hand of my pet—who I had decided to name Pet—and walked into the school.
As my father turned back, he murmured to himself,
"I feel like my son is being stolen…"
He muttered as he noticed the blush on Peter's face and how his gaze remained fixed on mine. However, he didn't think too much about it, considering we were still just kids.
Inside the classroom, the teacher introduced us, and I sat next to Pet. At the same time, two other boys introduced themselves—one named Harry and the other Ned.
They were also very cute and nice to talk to, though I sensed some tension from Harry. I didn't think too much about it, though.
Besides them, a boy named Flash seemed to want to bother Peter. However, I simply looked at him and released a bit of my old power. Even though we were still children, bullying could still happen. And since I was physically a child, any consequences would be milder… but most importantly, I didn't want this to affect Pet's self-esteem.
And so, we became friends in class. I quickly realized that Pet loved science—just like Ned and Harry, though Harry had better social skills.
As for me? Maybe because of the system or my past life, I had no real interest in school subjects in general… though I did find the science here intriguing. After reading some things on the internet and in books, I discovered that a so-called super serum existed in the past, which reminded me of the T-virus or similar things from other worlds.
There were also things like Stark Industries and other fascinating research projects, as well as mysterious events that occasionally appeared online or on TV—only to disappear quickly and strangely…