'Tink Tink Tink'

Sounds of iron being hit by a hammer made their way to the streets. Sweat kept pouring down on the hot lump of iron as it progressed one step forward to becoming a fully-fledged sword with each strike. This sound was coming from the best sword selling shop in this small city, 'Areon'.

Even though it was the best shop, there were only two men forging the swords in the shop. Smoke rose to the sky from the chimney behind the shop. Many tried and failed to get a job here; even though they held up a sign saying: 'Looking for a Job as a smith?'.

That was when he appeared, a man in dark clothing starving to death, he entered the shop and walked towards the middle aged woman who was looking after the shop.

"The label out in the front says, you got a job." His tone was husky and slow while his eyes felt restless.

"Yes, we do, but getting a job here is harder thank you think. Many have tried and failed." With a sigh, she counted and declared to herself that he was the 17th man who came here since last week.

"Why is it hard to get a job here?" His tone was slow but it showed no hints of backing down.

With a dark hoodie covering his hair and golden eyes staring at the middle age woman, the aura around him was quite mysterious. The middle aged woman had fair skin with her hair reaching her waist, she let out a motherly and warm aura around her.

"It's because my husband and son won't let you work here unless they approve of your strength and skills."

"Then I will prove myself, what am I supposed to do?" He sounded impatient yet so confident with his eyes fixated on the middle aged woman.

"Follow me."

She led him through the door behind her which connected the store to their workshop. There stood a tall and brawny man beside the furnace with a brown complexion and black hair, this was the master-smith of the shop, her husband.

"Honey, we have another person who wants to test his luck in our shop." She yelled trying to grab the attention of her husband in the midst of the hammering sounds. The master smith suddenly stopped his work and put the lump of iron he was hammering away.

"You want to test your luck ha! Alright then," The master-smith stood up immediately and placed a hammer in the visitor's hand and signalled him to hit the lump of red burning iron.

The man gripped the hammer and swung it back to hit the iron.'THUD!' It wasn't the sound of the iron being hit, it was the sound of him collapsing.

------- TWO HOURS LATER -------

The man in the dark clothing woke up to see three people in front of him, discussing what to do about him.

"Ahh...What happened?" He slowly woke up and sat with his legs crossed as he tried to remember what happened.

"What happened?! Nothing much, you just collapsed in my shop!" The master-smith was very pissed off and went on a full-on rage mode.

"Knock it off Dad! He just woke up." A teenager who seemed to be no more than 18 years old spoke as he glared at the master smith, he had a fair complexion and a semi built body with brown eyes complementing his brown hair, he was the son of the master-smith.

"How are you feeling?" The middle aged woman spoke slowly letting out a motherly aura in her voice as she looked at him with hints of concern.

"I am okay, thank you. I might have collapsed due to hunger. I am sorry, I dragged you into helping me." The man said with remorse.

"Come, I have some leftovers from our lunch, we can't just leave you to die in front of us." The middle aged woman spoke.

He followed her and as soon as he finished eating, they heard the man say, "Thank you for the food. I want to try my luck once more, please."

The master-smith hearing his firm words led him to the shop, placed a hammer in his hand and a red hot iron in front of him. He swung the hammer back to increase the impact caused and in the next moment, the hammer landed on the red iron.

"What the hell just happened!?" The master-smith widened his eyes as he screamed. He wasn't able to see him swing the hammer, he only saw him swinging it back. The iron which got hit was instantly sized down to the thickness of a sheet of paper. The whole family of the smith watched in awe.

"Son, remove the label saying 'we got a job'."

He had only three words for the man in front of him, "You are hired."

"Then can we talk about what I get paid?" He asked.

"Okay then, what do you want ?" The master-smith seemed eager to know what he demands and if he could afford it, but what he was asked as a payment astounded him.

"Just some food to survive, a place to sleep and give me some money every now and then if you think I did a good job."

The master-smith understood that he had quite a story to tell as he nodded in agreement.

The master-smith suddenly realized that he skipped their introductions. "I am sorry for the late introductions, my name is Ryu Takahashi, this is my wife, Lia Takahashi and our only son, Ken Takahashi and I agree to your request, you can stay here with us. So, what's your name?"

The man in black slowly spoke "I am going to be honest, I don't use my name anymore, I am not who I used to be, so please call me whatever you want to."

Ryu decided not to pry, he would normally suspect a shady character such as him but his instincts told him that he didn't need to. "Alright then, we will call you Shin, short for Shinigami, cause you look like the god of death in those clothes."

Shin nodded in agreement as he smirked internally.