The Abyss, a darkness which is comparable to none other. It is greater than death itself. Many people, after years of training and practice, get to obtain a fraction of the power which resides within the abyss. But, one person was able to own the abyss, exerting complete control over it. Engulfed by the darkness.
"...ren?, ....ren?"
Someone's calling my name.
"REN!!"
"Phuah!"o
I was broken from my trance by Yuki.
"You were spacing out, Is something the matter?"
We were in front of the station, waiting for our train.
"Was just thinking a couple of things and got lost in thought, sorry"
"Ie!! ie!! Don't apologize, A lot of things happened recently....if anything is troubling you, You can rely on me!."
I smiled at her words.
"Yeah I'll do that"
At that moment, our train arrived and we boarded it.
Our destination Toshima city, was at a distance of 30 minutes from Shibuya. We were going to a famous family restaurant which opened a few months back and gained a lot of popularly on social media.
We arrived at the restaurant which was not too crowded, few people had come with their families. Yuki and I took a table near the glass pannel from which you could see the street outside.
"What will you have Ren?"
Yuki asked passing ome of the menu cards to me.
"I'll take whatever you have"
I replied
"hmm....lets see...this place is famous for its Extra Spicy Giga Garlic Ramen..I'll have that"
"Extra Garlic what!??"
"It's a large serving of spicy ramen with garlic sauce"
"I see....is the serving also as large as the name?"
Both of us burst out laughing.
"aha ok let me place our orders"
Yuki said wiping her tears of laughter.
Suddenly I saw a familiar short figure, walking to a table with a plate of roasted pork.
"Mieko?"
I said out loud.
The person looked at me, his face lit up with joy
"Ren!!"
He served the food quickly to the designated table and came over to ours, beaming.
"Do you work here Mieko?" I asked.
"Yes! This is my part time job"
"Didn't you already have a part time job as a mangaka?"
"oh that is my hobby"
"eh...that's kinda awesome in a sense...oh by the way, this is Yuki, a friend of mine, Yuki this is Mieko, a friend"
Yuki who had been listening to our conversations
looked at me.
"It's good to see you actually have some friends other than making only enemies...How did you meet Ren? Mieko-san."
"Ah actually he helped me out from a troublesome situation" (M)
"Just like he did with me"(Y)
"I'll help anyone who is in trouble"(R)
"That's just so like you"
We chatted away lesurely, Yuki and Mieko talked about manga buisness, and some stuff trending on insta which I did not know much about. They were actually getting along pretty well, especially Mieko who was previously timid and shy. I guess after those bullies were taken care of he might have come over his trauma.
"Oh by the way Ren are you going to participate in the Rankers match?" Mieko asked
"Rankers match?" I asked curiously.
"Ah did you not hear about it? It was announced a few days ago. Some major corporations are gonna host it and major guilds are gonna take part in it"
"wait did you say guild. you have guilds here?"
"huh you didn't know about that-"
Yuki and mieko looked at my surprised expression.
"So what is this Rankers match about?"
"Basically people fight against each other to know who is the strongest. The person who wins, has a lot of influence on other guilds and even on the country leaders."
"so its like a battle of heiarchy?"
"you could say that I guess"
I looked out of the window, people were busy shopping, meeting up with friends, doing sightseeing.
"Are you going to participate Ren?"
"I'm not really sure about fighting battles, it just feels pointless."
"it might feel pointless but the pride of many bigshots are depended on this you know"
After finishing our lunch, we bid farewell to Mieko and came out of the restaurant.
"huuu...family restaurants are not half bad."
yuki was streching her arms over her head.
"was this your first time coming to this kind of place ren?"
"well we had diners at my hometown but i did not really visit them."
"ehh...were you the lonely type?
"you can say that I like my own company"
Yuki thought for a bit,
"Did you hate the idea of coming here"
"No it was quite the fun experience, i would like to come with you again"
"phueh!!!"
yuki blushed bright red but she tried to hide it.
"O- okay...next time we'll go somewhere else."
"Got it!!"
The street was slowly slowly becoming more crowded with people.
Suddenly from the crowd an aura of magic was released. I stopped walking and looked around.
"What's wrong?" Yuki asked.
"Did you not feel anything?"
"feel what?"
If yuki did not sense it then it must be some high level mage. But this type of aura..I know the person who has it. Don't tell me.
My sudden serious look alarmed Yuki.
"Tell me what is the matter?"
"Listen calmly. Someone is here who uses magic. A mage, dangerous one"
"But should't the ascociation know about it? I could not sense anything"
"That is the issue. Litsten Yuki if we don't do anything now, all these people, will DIE."