Megumi looked at a tall black monument before her. It had red scribbles that looked foreign at first sight but quickly became legible. as she read it, she understood it was an announcement of the reaper corp. taking candidates.
Cider ran closer to the monument as Dino approached Megumi, stopping by her side. He gazed upon the monument too within the busy square they were in.
"So this is it?" Megumi wasn't sure what to make of it.
Soon K approached the monument that Megumi and Dino's gazes were fixed on. He affirmed their suspicions. "This is it. The small tower you see here is where they record the identity of people interested in becoming reapers. All you have to do is insert your metal cards and you're done."
Megumi quickly dug into her pocket, pulling out the card in question. "So it's that simple, huh?"
"Hey Megumi, Why did you want to come here first?" Cider asked, He was now practically hovering over the monument. The glowing top of the monument was drawing his attention.
"Well, after today, I wouldn't be able to enlist into being a reaper. And I'd rather get it done sooner than later."
"Yes, After today, There won't be a new enlistment for another fifty years or so." K explained.
"But why?"
"Crowd control mostly. That, and because we're artificially limited to how many reapers we could make."
Cider cocked his head confused. "Artificia-what?"
"Artificially limited. The leader of the Reaper's corp. Is the only one able to convert about thirty thousand people within every fifty years. But only to those who pass."
"Wouldn't that mean that if Megumi fails, that she won't be able to join?"
"Yes." Megumi suddenly said, Undeterred by Cider's question, she proceeded to insert her metal card into the black monument. It glowed faintly, signifying its approval. it then slid out.
Megumi smiled. taking her card back. "That just means I have to give it my five-hundred percent."
Suddenly the tower glowed in approval once again. "It looks like it accepted mine too." Dino said.
"What?" Megumi saw as Dino took back his card from the monument. Megumi then turned back to Dino in shock. "W-wait a minute, since when did you want to be a reaper too!?"
"For a couple days now… I guess this makes us rivals now, doesn't it? But that just means that my odds are also better than yours, seeing that I've been in purgatory hunting demons for the last ten years." Dino with his card in hand, made it vanish into a mist.
Just before Megumi could say anything a flash of bright light was seen on Dino's figure. Seeing Dino's shocked face she turned, seeing the monument discharging electricity throughout the entire tower.
"What's that kid doing now?" Dino qestioned.
K and the rest simply watched as metal card then shot back out at Cider, smacking him in the face.
"Hey no fair!!" Cider complained, covering his nose. "Why can't I try too!?"
"Because you're a demon." K said. "Demons tend to be more unpredictable. And unpredictability often leads to chaos"
"I'm not unpredictable!" he pouted. Megumi could tell that Cider was slowly steaming up. But she couldn't help but to chuckle as she saw Cider biting the monument out of frustration.
"Oh yeah. Hey K. Is there anything we should know before-"
A load whiz broke through the air followed by a crack.
K blocked a sword from above. Lighting crackled. The wind pulsed, pushing waves of people away that braced themselves. even Megumi, Dino and Cider weren't safe as they flew back from the sudden impact.
As Megumi forced herself up, she caught a glimpse of the perpetrator behind the attack. "L… Liang!?"
"I finally found you…" Liang smiled confidently, his sword sparking against the plethora of bone tentacles that aided K. But then a deep and noticeable bulge formed onto Liang's forehead.
"Now tell me…" K pushed Liang back, leaving Liang to summersault back to the ground. "Who the hell said you could venture into Arc by yourself!"
Liang's yellow eyes darted sharply at K. with a clear hostility in his voice. "Now because of you… You ruin everything…"
Everyone around that watch braced themselves, each one holding their breaths for Liang's next words.
"I HAD A PARTY IDEA PLANNED OUT AND EVERYTHING!! BUT THEN YOU FOUR WENT MISSING!!"
Liang pointed dramatically at a to-do list of things he planned to do when reaching Arc.
Everyone that watched was left in absolute bewilderment. Even K was left speechless by this sudden reveal.
"HUH!!!??"
Liang crossed his arms with clenched teeth. "All of it is ruined now. And here I was thinking about treating everyone out too. Crab Rangoon, fried rice, I was even going to ask for Shushi. But now we don't have enough time and I'm sure everyone else is off doing their own thing now... "
The whole city square was in completely and utter silence. Nobody knew how to respond. Liang then finally noticed the monument in front of him. "Hmm... If you're all here, that must mean you already got you're ID cards on hand. And you must've enlisted to. That would explain the glowing I saw."
Liang seemed to relax a little more, his stiff shoulder's drooping with his smile returning. "Congratulations on taking your first steps to joining the reaper's corp."
"Th-thank you." Megumi said.
Dino simply nodded.
Just as Liang was about to join them, a large burly hand suddenly grasped Liang's head.
"Eh...? Ah. It's been a while Markus…"
A large overly muscular man lifted Liang into the air, a cold sweat now running down Liang's face. "How's the family been?"
Large green eye gleamed brightly from behind Liang. The large man had a big, hefty black-beard and shiny bald tan head. As the man spoke, his deep voice boomed. "You haven't been in Arc for a minute, and you're already disturbing the peace."
"Y-yeah, but I have my reasons here."
Markus promptly shot Liang from his hands, with a boom.
Liang zipped and reoriented himself to minimize the damage. And landed squarely on the wall, indenting a small crater. "Whew, that was close."
Looking up, Liang found Markus posed and ready to punch with his huge fists.
"Oh yeah, I forgot how ill tempered-"
Markus struck Liang, But the damage he inflicted was immediately reflected back.
"And dumb you were." Liang finished.
Markus stumbled back. And to everyone's shock, The man laughed hardily.
Liang jumped to the ground and the man's large arm swerved his direction. Without hesitation. Liang clasped, joining it together as if they were brothers in arms.
"Huhuhuh! That was a great hit! It's been too long."
"I could say the same thing you big oaf."
"None of this makes sense…" Bags grew under Megumi's eyes as she tried to decipher this unsolvable puzzle before her. It was strange seeing that Liang was suddenly became chummy with a large man that just attacked him.
"Uh, hey K. Do you know what's going on?' Megumi pointed to the ongoing scene.
"I'm just as lost as you are at this point."
Megumi then noticed that the large man had a reapers uniformed hooded robe tied around his waist. it didn't take long to spot an heptagram accessory on the large man in the form of an earring. "a reaper?"
"Hey," Dino spoke in a more hushed tone. "Now's our chance, Let's get out of here before he notices."
Just then, several other Reaper's came running in.
"Master!" the leading reaper called out. He then bent down, panting. "There you are."
"You still need to work on that stamina Carlos." Markus released Liang from his ironclad grip. "Sasha, Andrew should've been able to catch up to me first, I expected better."
Both of the named disciples bowed at once. "I'm sorry, we just didn't want to leave Carlos behind."
"Gah! I've been over this many times already, don't let your feelings cloud your actions. The minute you let sympathy or rage take control, is the moment your actions are altered."
"Hey mister." Cider was just under Markus.
Megumi glanced back to the Monument Cider was just at and realized that he approached the large man without them noticing.
Markus glanced down at Cider, curiosity peaking. "A devil child?"
"Hey Mister. If you can't let your feelings, take control, why did you attack Liang?" Cider then brought his hands behind his head. "For a second I thought he did something bad."
Markus bent down, patting Cider on his shoulder with a gentle smile. "Ah, yes. Let me tell you, my sweet summer child."
The hand on Cider's shoulder tightened its grip.
"RAAHH!!"
Markus shot Cider through the stratosphere, Leaving behind a smoky trail from Cider's travel. Seeing this, both Megumi and Dino were left speechless along with the other people that watched.
Dino side eyed K. "And demons were unpredictable?"
Markus dusted his hands off, content. "That's why."
K sighed exhaustedly; all the while Liang watched as Cider flew further in the sky. "Straight to the point as always, it seems..."
Not long after, Cider came hurtling back to the ground. Before reaching the ground, he was saved by K's Bone tentacle.
"Whoa that was awesome! Again! Again!!" Cider shouted.
"That kid can certainly take a beating," Liang remarked.
The reaper's accompanying Markus bowed, and apologized to Megumi's group. "We're so sorry!"
"Hey don't go apologizing for me!!" Markus' irritation instantly grew.
Andrew spoke up. "Our master is bit short tempered when it comes to demons."
K waved them off. "Don't worry about it. The child always knows how to find trouble anyways."
Cider was tossed back to Megumi and Dino. He stumbled around, a little dazed.
"Are you alright.?" Megumi asked.
Cider quickly reoriented himself and affirmed with a thumbs up, relieving Megumi's worries.
"I think we should get going. There's a few places I'd like to show you two." K said.
"Hey, What about me?" Liang pointed to himself, as Markus put him in a headlock.
"Don't you have some business with Lilith?" K inquired.
Liang paused and pondered for a moment. "I suppose you're right... I should talk to her now." Liang glanced up at Markus. "Hey Markus, do you know if Lilith is around?"
"She's in the same garden she always is."
"I guess she hasn't changed much after all these years, did she?"
"Heh! Nope."
Seeing that Megumi's group were departing, Liang waved. "I'll catch up with you four later, when your done looking around, Meet me by the edge of the city, north-east from here. You know the place, right K?"
Without turning K also waved. "Yes. Yes."
Megumi grumbled. "Do we really have to meet up with him again?"
"Yes. It's to your benefit."
As groups of people dispersed from the square with some lingering, conversing about the sudden event, a single woman hummed at a far by table. with a wide smile on her face.
The woman sported a wide smile as she leaned back on her chair with her black and red sneaker sprawled on the table. She wore black jeans and a small black tank top and a tall white overshirt that hung down with her stomach exposed. She cocked her head in amusement, letting her extremely long hair flow freely behind her. "That was interesting… It's not every day you see reapers like those three"
Her smile perked up more.
********
Cider snoozed on Dino's shoulder as he was being carried through the now emptying streets. They had just finished visiting shops, parks and other interesting places. It was a lot more interesting than what Megumi or Dino had expected. And exhausting too.
As they walked through the tightly cramped streets Dino looked up and over the tall buildings. He saw an orange hue in the sky, a clear indicator that the day was almost over. They could even see their shadow in front of them as they continued up east.
"There's a few more places I could show you, but we'll save that for tomorrow." K said.
Megumi was buzzing with excitement. "I can't wait. This place is amazing! Is this really what a city is like in the living world?"
"Not really." Dino spoke. "In the living world things are more on hand and busy with cars and stuff. This place seems to exclude cars entirely in favor of those places to travel quickly in the city."
"Oh, yeah. That's true."
"To be honest it kind of reminds me a little of video games where you can do something like fast travel."
Megumi peeked back at Dino, confused. "What's a video game?"
"Are you serious? How do you not know what a video game is?"
Megumi pondered for a little while trying to think long and hard if she ever heard the term before. Memories popped off when some high school classmates talked about video games, but never really explained anything to her. Instead, they just ran away seeing her as cursed.
She even remembers asking Eric at one time but according to his mother, they were evil propaganda and violent.
"Is it like, evil propaganda?" She asked.
Dino irked. And the answer became obvious seeing his estranged expression. "Even I know what a video game is. And I lived in a jungle for half my life."
Megumi turned to K. "Hey K, do you know what a video game is?"
K glanced back. "Hm? What's a video game?"
Dino slumped his head. "You know what. I give up on you guys."
"I'm sorry Dino." Megumi couldn't help but feel a tinge of embarrassment.
"How close are we to this place Liang wanted us, anyways?"
"Not far now. "K said. "We should reach it, just outside these buildings here."
It didn't take long until they reached the end of the pavement and left the sights of those towering buildings. To their surprise they were now in a wide-open space with some trees.
They continued on a dirt path, undeterred until they were faced to face with a single-story home that looked Asian in origin. The tiled and curved roof were dead giveaways.
It was in the center of a wide-open space and a small pond was not too far with a tiny bridge that could cross. It was a cute and tranquil looking place where one could leave all their worries behind.
"Wow, that place looks great." Megumi continued glancing around looking at the nature around them, enveloped in the orange hue of the sun
"I'm glad you all like it."
Hearing Liang's voice, Megumi turned to find Liang with his black jacket on his shoulder. He rolled his head around as if loosening his muscles.
"This is my home estate here in Arc."
"Wait! This is your place!?" Megumi questioned.
"Well, who else did you think it belonged to? Feel free to make yourselves at home. Take any room you like. They should be able to reform to your desired room." Liang approached his home leaving Megumi stunned and conflicted.
Dino with Cider on his back, stepped ahead, with K following behind.
"What are you waiting for?" Dino asked, glancing back.
With some hesitation Megumi followed. "I wasn't expecting we'd stay with him..."
Making it to the small home she got a better look very unique with different designs. It felt old, yet it was a refreshing sight for the eyes. Megumi entered behind Dino and K, taking the sights of different looking antiquities and swords of different styles.
Liang entered last, placing his often-used sword on the table. "This was the family home I lived in, in my youth. I made some good and bad memories here, so it's hard for me to let it go."
Liang picked up and looked at a portrait. An old photo perhaps.
"U-uhh. Thank you for the hospitality, but are you sure you want us to stay with you? Me and Cider I mean. I know you have to look after Dino and all so I-I-"
"Don't worry about it. Me and K had a little chat a while back and we agreed that you could stay here for the time being, until you were able to make you own home at least."
Megumi couldn't help but wonder, how when would make her own home in the first place. Megumi not wanting to argue quickly gave in letting Liang gaze back upon the photo portrait in hand.
He gave a chai smile at the picture before making it vanish like the mist. "Since you both are registered for the reaper's examination tomorrow, there's something I need to tell you two."
Megumi's and Dino's attention were both raised. They saw as Liang became much more serious than before. " I suggest you sit down. Because if you want to pass, you'll have to listen closely."