Vanitas went to the room he had woken up in and fell face down on the bed, his feet dangling from the edge. Immediately after collapsing on the bed, he fell asleep.
When he woke up, the sky had already taken a dark, purple hue. The sun had bid its farewell and now the moon was showing up to shine against the black backdrop of the night.
He was, once again, following Eleanor as he looked at the towering walls on his left.
The two walked down about four floors and reached the ground floor.
Different from the other floors that had multiple rooms at every interval, the ground floor was open and more spacious functioning as a hall and a sort of gathering place for the other members, or rather soldiers of the Demon Extermination Corps.
When he asked Eleanor about it, she said that the first floor was a hall for assemblies and large-scale gatherings. There was a cafeteria if one went further down the hall and to the right from the main entrance. Just to the left of the entrance was a sort of reception where people can ask about basic things regarding their mission and work. There was also a large wooden board that had a red cloth over it. Numerous papers were attached to the board that provided details of mission or other important matters concerning the Corps.
All the floors above it were living quarters for the members of the Corps and the top floor is where the head office was - the place where he met and talked with Edward.
There were a lot of people chatting with their friends and walking around as the two stood beside the wooden bulletin board waiting for one of Eleanor's friends. Many people gave Vanitas a look over as they passed him by, probably curious at seeing a new face. Some even came right up to ask about it which Eleanor handled well. Seeing her, Vanitas came to the conclusion that she was good at holding conversations.
After what felt like quite a long time, a girl came to a stop in front of the two.
She, almost lethargically, raised her right hand and greeted Eleanor. "Yo."
"You are late. Where had you gone, Dominique?"
"To spar with a few fellows there."
"Should have known since it was you." Eleanor sighed playfully.
Then the girl Dominique turned her eyes to Vanitas.
Dominique was a head shorter than Vanitas. She had short black hair that reached and curved around her neck. Her eyes were red - captivatingly red and glittering like a jewel. She was wearing a black outer, much like Vanitas, with a red inner and a black skirt under it that ended halfway between her thighs. She was wearing black stockings as well however that wasn't too long. A considerable portion of her white and plum thighs was peeking through the gap between her skirt and stockings.
While Vanitas noted all those details about her, Dominique just stood there and stared at him with her expressionless face. And now that he thinks back, he hadn't seen much facial movement on Dominique's face when she was talking with Eleanor.
"Um, you...thank you for helping us in the forest back then."
She then slightly lowered her head.
"No, there is no need to. You guys ended up saving me as well so I would say it equals out."
The girl didn't say much and just nodded her head once.
'She is a strange one'. Vanitas thought as the three walked to the cafeteria. Though, the 'strange' part wasn't only attributed to her silent behavior. He had felt that something was off about her. She was inhuman. It wasn't that she didn't 'look' like a human. She certainly did and a fairly beautiful one at that. However, the air around her - it didn't 'feel' human. That bugged him a bit but he held his tongue. He hadn't talked to her much and wasn't at the level of closeness where he could ask such sort of question that could be sensitive to her.
There were a lot of people eating in the cafeteria when they entered. Eleanor was searching hard to find an empty space for three. After some time, she saw four people get up having finished their dinner, and immediately ran to secure the seats for the three.
Dominique quietly followed after her, walking. Vanitas did the same, lagging slightly behind her.
The three sat at one corner of the long table where many people lined up and then Eleanor raised her hands and her voice, calling a worker of the cafeteria over.
The man who was wearing a white uniform with a black apron walked over and asked with familiarity to the two, "Same as usual, right?"
"Yes!" Eleanor replied.
The man looked at Vanitas.
Eleanor replied for him, "He is Vanitas. A new member of the Demon Extermination Corps."
Following her pause of speech, Vanitas lowered his head and gave his introduction, though it did not differ much from what Eleanor had already said.
The man then introduced himself as Julius with a smile on his face.
"Um, I don't know what the food available here is," Vanitas said.
"Don't you worry! I will arrange something for you and I am sure you would like it." He beamed as he said that and without waiting for any sort of response from Vanitas he ran to the counter at the back end and into the kitchen through a small door visible from their spot.
He came up after about three minutes with three plates of food balanced perfectly on his two hands.
He placed the three plates neatly before them and took his leave.
Vanitas was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of food on his plate.
"Isn't it a bit too much?" He said. It had a bit of...everything (?). There was fish, meat from some animal he wasn't aware of, and other assortments that, to him, felt like it was the first time he had ever seen them.
"Come on, you should be able to clean that off in no time!" Eleanor said from in front of him.
Then Vanitas looked at the plate in front of Eleanor and he couldn't help but say it aloud.
"Are you sure you can really eat all of that?" The food on Eleanor's plate was roughly double than what was on Vanitas's. She looked petite and had a slim body. So Vanitas wondered if her stomach could stomach it all.
"Of course! This is no big deal!" She pumped her fist for some reason.
"No, no, no. It is a big deal!" Vanitas said.
"Why does everyone keep saying this to me all the time?" She pouted. "I think it is normal."
"If that's normal, I would think the world has gone crazy." Dominique offered from beside Eleanor. The fact that she said it without any change in her expression made it seem all the more funny to Vanitas somehow.
"No. The world hasn't gone crazy. Yet! Though if people started eating as little as you, then the world might really go crazy."
As Eleanor said, in stark contrast to her own plate, there was very little food on Dominique's plate. When Eleanor hadn't even finished one piece of fish, the food from Dominique's plate had already vanished.
"No way the world will go crazy when you consume in a balanced way like me. Just enough for the body."
"There is no way that it is enough. Look, you are so skinny!"
Eleanor sided her hand together with Dominique's in comparison.
"No. They look skinny because 'you' are fat."
"Gah!" Eleanor let out a sound as if an arrow had pierced her heart. Seems like she took some heavy damage from that last statement. "No, I am not!" She cried.
"Yes, you are," Dominique responded without any change in expression behind it.
Vanitas watched the two friends having fun back and forth as he started digging into his food.
"Agh, I am full!" Vanitas patted his stomach as he said that. The food was clearly more than what he could handle but since it was so delicious he didn't want it to go to waste. So he stuffed bite after bite until not a single grain remained.
Eleanor on the other hand, despite eating double the amount of Vanitas, looked completely fine. He wondered where all the food she ate went.
As he was thinking this, someone placed a huge log of wood on his shoulder.
Correction.
It wasn't a log of wood but someone's arm; a thick, muscular arm that was wrapped around Vanitas's shoulders.
"Are you the newbie here?" He asked in his heavy and burly voice that matched perfectly to his large build and muscular body.
"Ah, yes."
"I see. Then, it's time for newbie crushing!" He declared all of a sudden.
"Crushing? What's that?" He didn't like the choice of words.
"It's an event where someone who is new to the Corps is made to duel with an experienced member," Eleanor explained to him.
"But why?"
"Think of it as a rite of passage, lad!" The burly man from before said as he pulled Vanitas by his arms. His hold was firm and he was almost dragging him without his consent. He hadn't fully grasped what this newbie crushing was and he certainly wasn't in the mood to fight against someone right now.
"Stop handling newbies with such roughness, Captain Arthur!" A boy with a slim build appeared behind the burly man and removed his hold on Vanitas.
"Ah, sorry, sorry!" Captain Arthur laughed heartily.
So he is a Cpatian? Vanitas thought to himself. That means he is higher in rank than me. But, wait? What rank am I even? General Edward said that he will have Eleanor or someone else do the paperwork for his enlistment. He had completely forgotten about it. He made a mental note to ask about it later.
"You say this all time and never reflect on your actions, do you? What if you scare the newcomers?"
"If they are scared with just this, then there's no way they are gonna survive in the wild."
"That may be true but that doesn't mean you can get away with such behavior."
"Okay, okay. I will be careful from now on." Captain Arthur waved his hand dismissively.
The boy with the slim build took a sigh and looked at Captain Arthur as if he had already given up on him.
He then turned to Vanitas.
"Allow me to apologize in his stead. I am Jack. One of the Captains of the Demon Extermination Corps."
"Ah, there's no need for you to apologize," Vanitas said. Actually, Vanitas was thankful that he had saved him from Captain Arthur. He then gave him his name.
"Vanitas, it is." He spoke his name aloud.
"Now, let's get ready for the duel."
"Eh?" Vanitas was completely stunned. He hadn't come here to save me from it?