Walking in silence through the sewers, I ask Raven if he knows what happened. "No, I have no idea what this night was even supposed to be. How did we get from getting you a sword to fighting people who are considered gods' hands?!"
Grabbing his head, he tries to shake the thoughts out. "Anyways, at least these sewers aren't on maps so we can move through here at our own pace." Scratching my chin, I nod my head.
"Yeah, how is it that these sewers are not blocked off by the cops?" Laughing slightly, Raven explains. "These sewers were built secretly from the government. Their existence is unknown even to sewer cleaners. The only reason why they look like sewers is so that they can be passed off as forgotten sewers in case of being discovered."
Continuing to walk in silence, we see a ladder. "This one?" Getting a nod from Raven, I start to climb up. Pushing the cover off, I pull Raven up. In a back alley, we see the sun rise above the buildings.
"You know, I'm in the mood for some waffles." Agreeing with Raven, we slowly walk to Ella's store. Pushing the door open, I see Ella cleaning some tables.
"Wel- God! What happened to you guys?!" Not saying anything, we just sit down at a table. "Just get us some waffles." He looks at us for a second before running off to the kitchen. I see Raven slamming his head against the table.
"How did I get stuck in here? I just wanted to live a normal life! So what if I made drugs?"
Right! I wanted to ask Raven about that! "Raven, I heard you made the Dreamaker drug, is that true?" Not even getting up, he just rolls his head to the side. "Yeah, I made it to get over the death of Alice, but the original prototype came for a different reason."
Resting my hands on the table, I ask. "So you're a drug lord?"
Getting a nod, he explains. "Yes, I personally used to make over 500 gallons of Dreamaker daily, but all the money didn't fill the hole in my heart, so I stopped. Now the things on the market are just cheap knockoffs that lack any safety.
"Is that why your hands have blue veins?" Pulling up his ripped sleeve, he shows me his blue vein-covered hand. "It's from the days I used to make it. I didn't have access to human test subjects so I just experimented on myself."
My eyes go wide at that revelation. "Did you not fear death?" Not getting anything out of him, I could see the silence as the silent hope that he would die doing the tests.
"Here it is boys, this time on the house." Putting the steamy waffles on the table, we thank Ella for the food. "Anyway, what were you two doing?"
Snapping his fingers, Raven points at the radio. Both expecting it to turn off, we hear. "I can't control technology. I'm just telling you that the radio will tell you what happened."
Sighing, Ella starts to get up, but I tell her that I got it. Turning on the radio, we hear.
"It seems that the gunfight at the riverside theater has finally come to a stop. This large raid gunfight has caused a huge amount of controversy. Over 300 activity law enforcers lost their life this night."
"Sad times, John. Due to the deaths of so many people, the parliament was called into an emergency session to discuss the possibility of cutting the south slums off."
Listening to the radio, Ellas' eyes go wide. "Don't tell me..."
Getting a single nod from the both of us she just sighs. "Well the south slums are pretty much just build on crime, so I don't care what you did there, but please be careful."
Taking a seat at the table with us. She grabs a waffle from my plate. "I'll be joining you if you don't mind, also. Take a shower." Sighing, I ask Ella how are her injuries from the previous mess.
"I got discharged from the hospital yesterday. My dad's been worried all night and now he's out cold on the couch." Sipping on some juice, I ask.
"What do you want to do?" Startled by my question, she asks what I mean.
"What do you want to do with your life?" I defeated James but didn't kill him. I feel like I have won, but lost at the same time.
"Me? Hmmmm, I want to grow my Seph powers. And once I get strong enough I want to travel the world!" Raising his eyebrow, Raven asks her how she plans to travel the world when the infrastructure is practically not existing besides the central highway system.
"My legs? I want to travel the world! See the cities of different cultures! After it all, I'll find the place I like the most and settle down." Closing her eyes and daydreaming. I turn to Raven.
"And you?" Straightening up, he looks at me as if I'm serious. "Ken, I have near-death encounters on a daily basis! Does it look like I have time to think about the future when I'm not even sure if I can make it to tomorrow?"
"Right, I forgot you're the wrong person to ask about this." Sipping on some juice, Raven points his finger at it and makes some ice cubes. "Don't be too mad, in truth I just want to go back."
"Back in time, I also wanted to do that once. But after meeting you, I realized that living in the moment is more fun. I hope I will be able to help you with life as you helped me."
Drinking juice, I stopped. For the first time, I saw Raven smile. Truly, smile. Every time he smiled before his smile seemed normal, but now. Compared to this. They seemed forced.
"Thanks, Ken, I hope that we will never have to clash swords." Laughing at the absurdity of the idea of us fighting, I spit the juice out of my mouth. Making Raven laugh, he slams his hand on the table. And Ella? She just sighs.
"My friends are idiots."