Destiny Seekers

Who the hell indeed is Mr. X?

As far as I know, my birthday is my loop-reset day. The right universal branches call it November 3rd, while we at the left universal branch call it Nevelem 3rd. I was born in a rich family… rich and generous family. My parents were owners of a sports drink company. They had three children, the eldest Evan, the middle Me, and the youngest Jeff. Thinking about everything that had happened since, I realized that my parents were murdered by the hands of Suoic Ipsus, car accident. Our drivers and mechanics knew that the car was in perfect condition and they make daily maintenance on it. In addition, the accident was deemed as a freak accident because the car that was at perfect condition burst into flames in a normal highway that they had always crossed whenever they go to work. My parents, and our driver died that very moment and now I found out why… Suoic Ipsus.

After the death of my parents, my big brother went abroad to finish up medicine while I took over the company. My brother was still studying at that time when my uncle and his family decided to stay home with us since it was actually a mansion. Uncle was a widower and had a son named Luke. Luke and I go way back during our childhood. Uncle, however, is a scumbag. I knew that he was up to no good that I had a private investigator tailing him. I also had the help of the government but they could not find any evidence against him. Until that very day that I was able to find evidence to have him arrested, but it never occurred to me that he was planning to tear our family from within. Jeff had a girlfriend, very sweet and faithful to him. She was drugged by the scumbag and my brother had to see them in bed. His girlfriend, distraught and broken, committed suicide.

A week later, Jeff shot himself in the head. Evan immediately flew back home. We were all devastated and I told him about uncle but he told me to stop. He told me that after the funeral, he will kick uncle out of the mansion, himself. However, I was boiling with rage deep within that I planned to expose him in front of all the visitors on the last night of the funeral. Everything was prepared, I drunk some liquor and made my way to the wake. I made a scene as I yelled at Jeff asking him why he had to do it. Telling him that I will expose the criminal behind it all. When my uncle was exposed, he got furious that he lunged at me with a knife. Luke took the hit for me and died. Realizing that he killed his own son, uncle grew mad with rage and tried to stabbed me. In the nick of time, the government intelligence officers shot him before I could get stabbed. He was only disarmed and was apprehended.

I thought my brother would be happy to find out that the culprit was apprehended, but he was not. Evan yelled at me and told me to f**k off. He said that I made things worst. That time, when he said that, my wires were cut loose. I yelled at him and cursed him with words that I could never tell my brother. If only he did listen and did not brush me off when I told him about uncle, none of these would’ve happened! Now Luke is dead and I made sure to make him realize that it was his fault. We never talked after that. After the funeral of my brother, Luke followed, and then afterwards I left. I made sure to take my heirloom with me and planned to travel all over the world to find peace.

My world did not have a messed up religion unlike the other worlds where Bibles were manipulated by the people themselves. The gods we believed in are all of the eleven of them. If I die, I’ll become a criminal soul in Death Verse. I hope that Jeff, Luke, and my parents end up at Life Verse so that they could fall in line and await their turn to be reincarnated again. Heaven and Hell exists in the other universes that is why we worship them. Even in a world where gods proclaim of truth, there are always those who go against their will. My uncle is one of them, I hope he rots in that prison.

In one of my travels, I met him. He called himself MR. X. At first I thought that he was kind of a spy but he later told me his name. His name was @#$%^& @#$%^&. He was a very lucky person, but he was simple and he did not use his luck as an advantage of becoming filthy rich and powerful. He always said that it was his mission to have this luck. It is as if he is destined to avoid death even if it was very impossible for him to survive. He made me try to kill him and it was very dangerous. The first one was to do this Ruffian Roulette and had me put four bullets in the barrel. When I shoot him, nothing came out. Then, he ask me to add another bullet and the same result came in as obvious that I couldn’t believe it myself. Finally, he ask me to add the final bullet. At first, I was hesitant, but it became obvious when I tried to shoot him. The gun’s trigger was jammed and I can’t pull it.

We became very close that I’ve opened up my life to him. He was the family member that I never got to have, but as of this moment, he was my best friend. He gave me a lot of insights based from his experiences. Then, there was that time. I had a job and I’m already 25 years old. I’m still suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) seeing Luke dying in front of me as I threw jabs at my uncle at my brother’s funeral. As I was saying, the news about a rogue planet approaching our solar system and that we have a few more days left to live, three days I remember. Until the day of the impact. I wasn’t lucky enough to board the super spaceship the government had been secretly building. One hour left for me to live before the collision while the others are going to survive and look for a planet to live…

While the mob forced themselves into that spaceship, some of the others decided to live the remaining hour of their lives together as family. I, myself, secured a tower of my own to climb to. It was beautiful. It’s like a moon slowly growing bigger as it gets near our atmosphere… I couldn’t ask for more.

“This was a mistake,” Mr. X appears to me in a portal with somebody inside waiting for him. “I shouldn’t have gotten close to you…”

“What-what is this?”

“Listen,” Mr. X hugs me tight. “When I was fifteen, I impregnated a woman in my own world. I know, it’s very irresponsible of me, but I love the kid. Fast forward ten years, I’m 25 and he’s 10. You look like him, only that if he was much older. The resemblance is uncanny, but the thought is there.”

“I would’ve love to see your kid,” I said. I never bothered to ask him about the portal and about how he got here. I just had that conclusion right away about his luck and pieced things together along the way. However, “I’m sorry my friend, but this is the end of me. Thank you for seeing me off… I appreciated it. You have to go now, I can see that planet…”

“Mr. O, close the portal on my signal… now! I’m not here to see you off, son,” he jokingly uttered, grabbed my shoulders and pushed me into the portal. “You are Mr. X now…”

“What are you-” I was pushed inside and I tripped as the portal closed.

“Wait you can’t!” the one from the other side yelled at him but somehow I landed on to him, knocked him down accidentally and prevented him from stopping the portal from closing, “s**t!”

As I turned to look at him before the portal closes, the surroundings on the other side turned bright orange and it became dusty, and then he turns to me, gave me a salute saying, “This is the death that I’ve been yearning for…”

The portal closed and I knew that there’s no way I can go back.

“Get off me,” the man he called Mr. O shoved me off. “I’m taking you Alpha Boss. This is why we need some ground rules to follow and getting very close to humans at work is a red-flag. Thanks to you, Mr. X is dead… he was one of the best.”

“I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!” clenching my fist, I decided to punch him straight in the face but I fell into a portal he created and landed on the floor opposite to where he stood.

“You did,” he stepped on my body. “You are the reason for his death. He sacrificed himself to save yours just because you resemble a lot like his son. We’re here…”

- Ω - Ω - Ω -

Alpha Boss, as they call him, is the Supreme Being of Balance and Order, Exal. He wore an emerald green cloak of different shades. He was shining bright with golden aura emanating from his body. Behind me, were others as Mr. O makes way to them. All of them together with Mr. O wore some flashy gentleman clothes and an O-marked mask reminiscent of when I first met Mr. X wearing his X-marked mask. I couldn’t even move my legs as I was overwhelmed by his omnipotence as the Supreme Being.

“As you all know,” he spoke, “the bad news is Mr. X abandoned his duty and died in an unfortunate death. However, he had fulfilled his own prophecy of saving his son… somewhat resembling his supposed son. Let us all offer him our deepest regrets and as we part with him. Just kidding…”

“The f**k is that supposed to mean!” the man under the P-marked mask who was definitely crying yelled at the Supreme Being.

“Yeah, you are killing the mood!” the man with the I-marked mask also reacted.

“What I am saying, people, is that Mr. X is within the Parallel Chambers with the other previous emissaries who had gone to have their eternal rest,” the Supreme Being laughs out loud. “You crybabies, I won’t allow my own emissaries to disappear into oblivion or have their souls taken to different places! You know me~”

I can’t help but to laugh inside my own thoughts. This one, aside from saving my friend’s life, is an outgoing god. Seeing the reactions of the so-called emissaries was a priceless joke that could never be done in the world where I came from where even a little amount of opening a door for the opposite s*x causes an outcry or some s**t.

“I almost forgot,” he said as he reached for me to get me to stand up to face them. “This guy, whoever you are, is you new Mr. X.”

“Hey what?” that was it, when I became Mr. X, confused and all that emotional s**t.

“Ms. M,” then the god continued, “You will be in charge of this new guy’s orientation! That would be all… dismissed.”

- Ω - Ω - Ω -

“Ms. M, I am-”

“Mr. X,” she took off her mask, “I know that. Your old name doesn’t matter anymore.”

Ms. M, the Registrar, looks like your not-so-average-looking office lady. She is incredibly beautiful, in fact, she looks quite matured and well she doesn’t look like she’s got family with her appearance but I thought about getting the gist that she has been living way longer than I have. Her is brown and it’s about upper torso long… she also has bright yellow irises (not contact lenses), indicative of being from a different universe. It feels definitely the same with the others and that during my physical exam, I found out that I might be an oddball considering my heart is directed towards the right and my liver and appendix of all body parts are on the left. So she told me that my name doesn’t matter…

“W-w-wait why is that?”

“Can you read this, @#$%^& and can you even state your name at this point?” she asked, “Your name is @#$%^& and it is redacted and confidential that not even you can say it properly without sounding like @#$%^& which has become a running joke to our fellow emissaries.”

“Are you a god?”

“No, I’m like you and every emissary in here, mortals.”

“How did you get here?”

“The same thing as you did, but on a different circumstance,” Ms. M placed her palm on my head. “I’m supposed to be the one conducting the interview, Mr. X.”

“I’m so sorry,” I held her hand off my head. “I’m just curious and all…”

“That is something to be expected…” she gave me some gadgets and some books. “This is your manual if you do not understand the orientation, since I was not a teacher before I got here. Just like you who I suppose is not the athletic type. You’ll need to be more athletic and versed at fighting. Luckily, you’ll have the entire eternity to practice that…”

“Holy s**t…”

“Indeed…”

“I never understood anything you said,” I nodded at her while smiling.

“I know you don’t,” she did the same, “that’s why we have forever on our side.”

“What about aging?”

“We age only for a year and then it loops back again,” Ms. M gave the explanation. “You will be @% again on your next birthday and everything there was this part that you need to read on your own.”

I read the part without speaking, “If you tried to impregnate someone outside… don’t. It would never work. Or if you get pregnant at work… don’t. When you loop back a year later, everything you gave goes back to you. So, if you donated your kidney, don’t.” After reading it, I asked her, “Who the hell wrote this? I get the thought but it doesn’t look like a good explanation.”

“Ask Mr. M who is eternally resting at the Parallel Chambers,” Ms. M scratched her head. “You know how hard it is to be the Registrar?”

“Pretty hard, I guess.”

“Not like you now.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve inherited the Destiny’s Coil, you are the new boyfriend of Lady Luck, dumbass!”

“Right…” I turned around and surveyed the room, or the gym, or the court, or whatever this room was, “What is exactly my job as the lucky guy?”

“We all have the same job description,” she made me sit on my chair and sat on its tablet. “When a universe is out of balance… WE MUST EITHER RESTORE IT… OR DESTROY IT… WHICHEVER IS MORE APPROPRIATE THING TO DO.”

“That’s a big task…”

“Yes it is, especially with some of the gods from other Supreme Beings, like the Destiny Seekers that mess with the destinies of our fellow mortals living peacefully or something. You’ll find how dirty they are soon enough…” she moves closer to me with her lips inches to mine. “ONCE AGAIN, MR. X, WELCOME TO OUR WORLD.”

As she draws away from me, the twenty-five other emissaries, including Mr. O, appear behind her and all of them looking straight back at me…

“Is this how welcoming parties look like?” I asked myself and then there’s a bigger question, “Who the hell indeed is Mr. X? I know who I am… but I wonder who he was…”