Act II. Part VII.

[Day Five]

"I can barely feel my legs," Mila grumbled as she sat on one of the sofas and rubbed her sore legs.

"I can't feel anything." Toshiko retorted.

"Mmmf," Ryu added in a muffled voice with his face buried into the cushion of the chair.

Laveda appeared out of thin air and walked towards the door. "The brief time we spent together will forever remain in my heart, now go home." He said as he held the door open.

"Thank you for this Mr. Laveda we never liked you to begin with but now we just hate you." Toshiko smiled as he walked out.

"Aww, your words warm my heart." Laveda earnestly responded.

As they walked out the door, Toshiko's valet stopped in front of the door.

"We'll drop you guys off so hop in," Toshiko told the two as he opened the car door.

"I just want to go to sleep," Mila said in a tired tone of voice while getting into the car.

Ryu walked up to the car door, "Uhm, on second thought I think I'll walk home. There's something I want to do." He said with a soft smile.

"Get some rest and have a goodnight," Mila said as she stuck her head out of one of the windows.

The car drove off and Ryu started to walk as the sun slowly set casting an orange-like light everywhere.

He found himself on a street filled with people despite it being evening time. The street wasn't exactly crowded but was filled with enough people that the amount itself seemed strange. Even with there still being some sunlight still visible the street lights came on and brightly lit the area.

He put on a smile as he navigated through the crowds, amidst the crowd he recognized a grey scarf, flailing about in the air. He quickly followed the scarf, which was worn by someone with a black leather jacket. He ran up to the person and pulled them aside but he couldn't recognize the person. He apologized and went on his way.

He continued walking down the busy road, and finally exited into a small alley. He walked down the dark and grim alley and the further he got the louder the silence became, slowly snuffing out everything in the background leaving nothing but his footsteps to be heard.

Ryu stopped walking and turned to his left, there stood a small dinner painted with green and white stripes, with a dim neon sign that read "FOODIES FOOD" in cursive. He opened the door and the sound of a bell followed. Almost immediately the bell rang, it broke off from the top of the door.

Ryu knelt to pick it up from the peeling checkered green and white floor tiles, "Is anyone here"? He asked with the bell in hand.

A girl came through a door– well a doorway that did not have a door, you could tell that there was one at one point because the hinges stuck out like a sore thumb on the frame of the doorway.

She stood behind the glass food case filled with confectioneries and greeted Ryu energetically with a smile.

"Welcome to- "But as soon as she saw who she was greeting she switched to a more casual tone, "Oh it's you, Ryu." Before she could finish her greeting, she took notice of the bell he held and rushed from behind the display towards him.

"This useless thing falls off after it rings. Did it hurt you when it fell?" She said as she gently examined Ryu's head with her hand.

The girl seemed to be about fifteen or sixteen years old and was slightly shorter than Ryu. She had shiny bright red hair that reached her shoulders tied back into a ponytail, as well as perky cheekbones covered in freckles which complimented her glazed-ashen tone skin and fairly round face. She wore a messy white apron over a dark green polo t-shirt matching the green and white theme of the dinner.

"No, it fell before I even got in," Ryu responded as he took her arm off his head.

"Oh well, what will you be having today?" She asked as she walked back to behind the display.

"A slice of chocolate please," Ryu said cheerfully.

He walked over to sit by one of the two white plastic tables.

"Oh, and how's your fam-" Before she could ask her question she paused.

"How's my what?" Ryu asked, turning to face her.

She seemed to be in a trance-like state, but like it never happened she snapped back to reality.

"Why are you staring at me like that Ryu, do you think I'm cute?" She giggled.

"You scared me." He answered, shaken by her sudden break of silence.

"Okay, okay. One regular coming right up. Just give me a moment." She said as she went into what seemed to be the kitchen via the doorway behind the display.

Ryu sat and stared at the large square-shaped window next to him, but the dinner was in an alley so the only thing in view was another brick wall, a grim-looking one at that. Despite everything, he felt comfortable, staring at his colorless reflection on the glass in front of him.

"Hello, child." A feminine voice said from behind him.

She seemed to be sitting at the only other table, and her chair was directly behind him, and as soon as he heard her voice the hairs on his arm stood at end. It was an indescribable feeling but he did know that even his body warned him not to turn his head.

"Sorry, but who are you?" Ryu nervously said as he started to turn his head to face the woman who was speaking to him, against his instinct of self-preservation.

Immediately he saw who it was he jumped out of his chair and to his feet.

"Yo- You! You were there that day. What are you doing here?!" He said angrily to the woman who remained seated as he moved away from the table.

"I would prefer if you called me Chao-Xing, and I did not come here to fight you. I apologize if my colleague scared you previously, but I came here only to talk." She said with an expressionless face and a tone devoid of emotion.

"Scared me?! You people killed my entire family and just when I stopped thinking about it, you showed up!" He snapped back.

"Lower your voice and sit down." She said in a firm tone.

For some reason Ryu obeyed and once again they sat with their backs facing the other.

"As I said before I only came here to talk."

"And why the hell should I listen to you? Ryu angrily responded.

"Hell?" The woman asked with a completely lost expression but she ignored what he said and went back to the subject at hand. "Me and that man, Hishe, serve a woman and our lady is the perfect example of just and kind. But- "

"But what?" Ryu snarled.

"But lately she's been unwell." Her words suddenly started to carry a hint of emotion in them. "She's changed from what she once was, my theory is that there's someone corrupting her.

Now every culling we carry out on oddities like you and your friends, are on her orders."

"We're not the only ones you've done this to?" Ryu turned and asked with a fearful expression.

She did nothing but quietly nod.

"What I ask of you now is to hold on to this," She said to him as she pulled out something from her coat pocket. "When the time comes, I beg that you will have mercy on my lady and forgive her. Please." She said as she bowed her head with her hand out.

Ryu looked at her palm, for a while feeling extremely reluctant to take what she held but grabbed it from her hand. It was a gold coin with what seemed to be a fading coiled-up fox on it. He turned over the coin but the other side was plain.

"I'm not saying I'll help you but if I decide to, I'll keep the coin and if I don't, I'll… throw it away or something," Ryu said as he fumbled at the end of the sentence and sat down.

"Why did you even choose to give me this coin? What am I even supposed to use it for?" He asked as he stared at the coin in his hand..

"Sometimes simple, trivial fate surpasses even the gods' very authorities. I believe that your fate can help all of us."

He turned to respond and to his surprise, she was gone.

"Four slices of chocolate cake ready to go, and I added donuts as well into each of the boxes, completely on the house." The girl said as she handed a carrier bag to Ryu.

Before he could grab the bag from her, a gold ring on her smallest finger caught his attention, mainly because of the coin he just received.

"What's that black thing on the ring?" He asked as he turned his head to get a better look. "It looks like a bir.."

She quickly swapped hands and pulled back her left, shyly hiding her left hand behind her back.

"It's a cheap ring I got myself, I wear it everywhere now out of habit." She responded with an awkward bit of laughter.

"Thank you so much, but why did you put in four slices when I only asked for one?"

"Oh, you said the regular, so four slic—" Before she could finish, she paused once again. "I don't know, it just felt right. Like I've always done four slices for you. Anyway, thank you for coming once again." She said with a puzzled expression.

Ryu left the dinner and walked into the alleyway, and let out a sigh.

. . .

He found himself at the door of Mr. Laveda's house and to his surprise Mila and Toshiko were also there. They wasted no time asking each other why they each came back.

Toshiko knocked on the door three times and after a brief silence, Mr. Laveda opened the door.

"What are you all still doing here? Don't you have homes where you're supposed to be?" He asked them as he walked back into the house.

"We still have questions for you. Like, what are you, or why were we taken to that '0' layer, or even why that woman attacked Ryu?" Mila asked as they followed him into the house.

"You don't need to know that."

"Then what can we know?!" Ryu shouted.

"What I tell you is all you need to know!" Laveda shouted back, sending echoes into the house.

"Mr. Laveda, you know better about what's happening to us than us, so why won't you answer our questions?" Ryu pleaded.

Mr. Laveda stood silent. He slowly looked at the three in the room and then walked over to his black leather armchair to take a seat.

"I…" He paused, sending a wave of expectant silence into the room. The pause was a shock itself but what was really shocking was the expression of sadness, the ever-confident, and charming Mr. Laveda had on his face.

"I will not help in sending you to your deaths. The training I had you do was to ensure you didn't run off looking for an early end." He said in an unyielding tone.

"I have nothing left. How am I supposed to live normally with everything that's happened?" Ryu said as he looked at Mr. Laveda, taking him aback.

"If… If I help you, you will surely die. Even If you survive, which is a big if. What you will go through will hurt more than death itself.

I can help you get rid of the stenches you have on you, and make it possible for you lot to live a somewhat 'normal life'. So, do you still want me to help you further go down your road of vengeance, or do you want a normal life?" He said angrily.

Toshiko and Mila both turned their heads to look at Ryu.

. . .

End.