Not a Hero Chp. 3

Ui Bin An

Chapter 3: S.O.U.L

Noah and Khari stared at each other.

            “Hm, now, how do I even defeat that creature?” asked Noah.

“Huh?? You didn’t even know how to defeat the nok and you are telling me that you will save me,” said Khari with an absurd expression.

“What then. Do I just leave you there? At least I punched it out of the window!”

Khari sighed.

“Listen to me carefully. Every nok can be defeated by destroying their core, which we call them ‘emotion’. Each nok have emotion in different places. So, we would detect nok through what we call ‘flow’. Flows allow us to detect the emotion and kill off a nok. It’s the fundamental power needed to kill off a nok,” said Khari.

“Got it, so I need to destroy their ‘emotions’, or the core with this power called ‘flow’, yeah?” Noah said while stretching his leg, getting ready to fight off the nok.

“Yup, but the problem is that you seem like you don’t even know how to use a flow.”

“No worries. It’s just like in movies, right? I will somehow know how to use flow.”

“No, it’s not like that. You need to know how the flow exactly works. You need them to flow through your body. Then, you focus them on one point. You then burst them out. It wouldn’t be easy for you like someone who just awoken their ‘flows’—”

“Oh, it worked haha. Ooh, its blue, looks like I have fire on my hands.”

“Wait what? How did you?” the nok roared.

            “Looks like we don’t have time; don’t worry Khari! I will save you!” said Noah.

            “Wait no, stop!”

BOOM

There was a loud sound. A mysterious guy who magically appeared killed that monster in an instant with a finger.

            “WOOOWWW, Who the heck is that guy?” said Noah, shocked.

            “Oh gosh, it’s captain Silas. Why is he even there? I thought he was out of states.”

            “You know him?”

            “Yeah, he is the 3rd division captain, which I’m in.”

“Wow, he seems like an incredible guy. He literally blew up that monster with one finger. Is he like the purple dude in the Marvel series?”

“Yeah, he is the strongest man alive in our side of the world. He’s invincible.”

“Haha yeah he seems invincible. Wow, I’m so tired now, sorry Khari but I think I will have to sleep for a while—”

Thud. Noah fell to the ground.

            “You ok Noah?” shouted Khari, who seemed to be freaked out.

The mysterious guy, so called Captain Silas, jumped to the building where Khari and Noah were. Then he walked toward Khari who was calling Noah, trying to wake him up.

“He just lost conscious,” said Captain Silas. “He just needs to rest for a while, then he will be fine.”

“Phew,” sighed Khari with a relief.

“So, can you explain me what happened?” said Captain Silas.

………

“Hmm, uh. Where am I,” mumbled Noah.

Noah saw a white celling when he opened his eyes.

“Oh shoot, am I late for school?!” shouted Noah, waking up.

“No, you aren’t, you just woke up from yesterday,” said the guy who looked familiar.

“Huh? Where am I? Also, yesterday?”

“Don’t you remember the last night’s incident? You were drop dead from fighting that giant nok. Good grief that you are still alive,” said the guy while he was giving Noah his breakfast.

“Yesterday? Oh wait…Oh! You’re the guy who blew away that monster with one finger!”

“Haha yeah. My name is Gino (JEE-no) Silas, just call me Silas. You should rest more. Your body should ache really bad right now.”

Noah moved his body around.

            “Ow, yeah it does hurt a lot. Uh, can you explain to me where I am”,

“You are right now in S.O.U.L, a special defence force against nok. This is a secret agency which the government doesn’t even know. You are right now 3000ft below surface, in the underground base of S.O.U.L”.

“Huh? What then, am I underground???”, said Noah, shocked.

“Yeah, you are, right under Washington D.C”.

“Wait quick question, what is S.O.U.L again? Is this like the F.B.I or C.I.A?”

“You could say we are. We are an agency where we get rid of nok. I think you know about nok, so I’ll skip that. We need to get rid of nok because those can really harm people badly or affect people’s normal life and can lead them to death. You saw that happening yesterday, right?”

Noah remembered the incident last night, where Mr. Hugh’s head was torn apart. Noah felt like vomiting again.

“To prevent that, us S.O.U.L get rid of noks. It’s the noker’s job to prevent the minimum amount of harm and dangers people get from noks,” continued Captain Silas.

Noah was silent.

            “Hey, I have one question.”

            “Go on.”

            “Then why did you bring me in to S.O.U.L? I wanted to ask you from the start.”

“Oh,” said Captain Silas, not expecting him to ask this question.  Captain Silas started to laugh.

“Hmm, Noah, so you really don’t know how special you are, haha,” said Captain Silas while wiping the tears away from his eyes. “There is not a lot of people who can see noks. Only 8% of the world population can see a nok, and there is only 5% of the world population who can both see and touch a nok. S.O.U.L therefore always lack employers. We nokers are always busy.”

Noah nodded while he was finishing his cereals.

Captain Silas then pointed at Noah with the spoon that Noah used.

“You, Noah, are a special case,” continued Captain Silas. “You weren’t born from a family who can originally see or touch nok. You were somehow able to see and fight a nok last night.”

Noah blinked a couple of times, pointing to himself.

“I talked with the higher up executives, and they all agreed on bringing you in to S.O.U.L. If you don’t want to join, it’s fine, we decided to protect you from noks. We will provide you food, house, and tuition fee. But we really need you.”

Noah stared at Captain Silas blankly and blinked his eyes.

“Woah, so you want me to fight that monster every day?! Hang on, let me think,” said Noah.

“Huh, I guess that he won’t join, dang he is a noker that we would find once in a century,” thought Captain Silas.

“Ok, I will join!” said Noah.

“Wait what?” said Captain Silas, who did not expect him to say yes this quick and easily.  “You sure about joining? You know it’s actually pretty dangerous, you can die from this.” Captain Silas was thrown off by Noah’s response.

“Yeah, I know. But I think this is right and it’s not really a bad thing. It’s not like I’m killing a human or hurting someone. It’s like fighting off evil right? Then I’m in! If I can help other people with my power, I want to!” said Noah, smiling.

Captain Silas blankly looked at Noah, and burst out laughing,

“HAHAHA, I never met a guy like you who is willing this much to fight noks,” continued Captain Silas. “Well then, we should keep this going. Are you ready? You will now get tons of information about noks and nokers.”

The door slid open.

“Uh, did you guys finish your talk? Also, Captain, I asked you if you can help me find bandages,” said Khari, looking tired with a bandage around his head.

“Khari!! So glad that you are alive! I thought that you were dead!” said Noah, trying to hug Khari.

“No, I’m not dead; also, how can you move this well? Are you a superhuman or something?” said Khari, pushing away Noah.

Captain Silas smiled.

            “Well, you guys ready?” said Captain Silas.

            “Yeah!” said Noah, following Captain Silas.

            “Uhhh, can I rest more?” said Khari, looking frustrated.

Now, this is the beginning of how Noah started his life as a noker, and how he was able to find meaning of his uncle’s words.