It was two years ago. Just after the inhabitants of Neodeka took Atsuko's life and fell into the realm of Jigoku.
Evan Shadows walked just a few steps behind the demon Sadako. Her eyes were red, her personality was cold and her words were indifferent. Though, despite all of this, Evan couldn't help but feel charmed by her. After all, she was quite beautiful.
Long silky black hair shined against the glows of the orange sky. Though that hair was severely frayed and looked a complete mess.
Evan was curious about Sadako, he hadn't spent any one on one time with her until now. He was secretly checking out the sharpness of her horns when the chicken on top of her head turned around and squawked at him.
Incidentally, this chicken was her familiar. It's name was Basa, it was quite intelligent as chickens go. On top of that, this chicken could change into a much larger creature that could certainly eat a person if so it desired.
Evan decided it would probably be best not to rile Basa up but so much. That chicken is quite protective of it's master after all.
Anyways, at the current moment Sadako, Basa, and Evan were on their way to the demon lord's castle. Apparently, this demon Lord was the father of Sadako as well as the now very extremely dead Atsuko.
Hopefully he won't be but so torn up over his dear daughter's death. Evan did find Atsuko to have been pretty sexy for a lizard lady. He was quite enchanted by his very brief encounter with her. Though, he would have to keep those thoughts to himself.
She kinda reaped what she sowed with killing Avery's lovey dovey girlfriend. Along with who knows how many other people that were killed when she destroyed their home camp. The dragon just flew over and blasted everything in sight with fire.
Evan was utterly shocked as he saw Avery lose his mind.
He had no idea that Avery was even capable of that kind of power after all.
Just as the sight of the castle came into vision, the trio was walking into a grand gateway of sorts. It wasn't very far inside that they came under attack. A large swipe of some sort of power cut into the ground. Reflexively, Sadako jumped back while simultaneously pulling Evan out of harms way.
Basa began to make an intimidating growl. As the dust settled a voice called out from the position of the attacker.
"Sada!....Is that you!?" it was a man's voice.
"That voice…could it be Shirone?" Sadako called out, her voice pitched up a bit.
[Shirone The Demon Of Dawn]
Evan could tell by Sadako's sigh of relief that Shirone wasn't a threat. Incidentally, Shirone was the one who looked after Sadako as a child. He taught her the means to defend herself, on top of that he was the original owner of Basa.
As Sadako briefly explained to Evan, her voice was filled with admiration for Shirone. Evan took one glance at him, he was a little rough around the edges. For Sadako to be in such high spirits, Evan had one word to describe her just then. Adorable. He immediately decided Shirone was a good guy.
"It's good to see you kiddo!...you too ya lil' squawk come 'er!"
Shirone roughed the feathers on Basa and gave Sadako a hug. It was a heart warming scene, like a parent getting to see their child after a long time apart. but unfortunately…
"You know…I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, but there are orders from the demon king Goliath to bring those from Neodeka to him…"
Shirone wore a troubling expression, it was probably something he had difficulty saying.
"Kiddo…I want you to get outta here while ya still can. I'll stall the rest of the guards so don't worry about that, the couple of you can probably make it out there as servants for a while until you can get some money saved up.
As for the rest of your friends still out there, as long as they don't stand out too much…the lot of you shot out so fast it was hard to see where you ended up.
It was fate I found you Sada to tell you the truth, your dad has plans to capture ya and use you and your pals as soldiers to sacrifice as pawns in his worthless scheme to invade another realm.
In other words, he's sentencing you all to death. Don't go to his castle Sada, you'll get wrapped up in that business again and I couldn't forgive myself if I let you be sentenced to death a second time…
plus, I suppose a certain guard could have a hard time finding a few 'unknown souls' though eh?"
Shirone gave a wink at the end there, he was clearly worried about the situation at hand though. There wasn't any time after that to worry about unfortunately, the clanks of boots sounded in the distance.
They were marching straight in their direction, it was time to make a choice now. Go to the demon king Goliath's castle, get captured and caught up in some sort of death mission, or…turn back now and try to mix in with the crowd outside. Make a run for it, essentially.
Who knows?
It's possible they could find Cera, Lyran and the others before the guards do and in doing so warn them of the danger. At that point they still don't have a direction to go, but there was no time for that in this moment. It was do or die, so to speak.
It was Sadako who decided to take Shirones advice. She gave him one last hug before turning on her heel, taking Evan along and running out into the abundance of the bustling towns people outside the royal castle's gateway.
"I wish you luck kiddo…"
It seems there are several different races coinciding in Jigoku. From humans to demons, elves and dwarves. Not only that, but there is an actual society living outside the royal castle.
Sadako has a past in this world, as such, she does have contacts that can help the three of them get on their feet. As it turns out, this world is much like the human world in terms of a nessesity to eat and sleep. There is a currency system in place, as well as a market and several inns scattered about the town.
In order to obtain money, Evan and Sadako will have to sell themselves as servants. The servant system in place was quite different here in Jigoku however. Supposedly, Sadako knew of a couple who owned a small time buisness in town. They were known to draw up a loose contract and paid their 'servants' a daily wage for working. In reality, it was basically just a job.
Through this course of action, between Sadako and Evan was enough money to stay at an inn and eat for roughly a week. In that time they would work on a plan.