Cider was punched hard in the face, by none other than Megumi. She could only look on in horror.
Cider fell to the ground hard. "OW!!"
"Ow. Ow. Ow!" Cider felt his face. He glared up, finding Megumi.
"I-I-I'm so Sorry!"
"Megumi?"
Megumi started to ramble off, apologizing. Cider didn't pay attention to this. He smiled and jumped up in joy. "There you are!!"
"Huh??"
To Megumi's surprise, Cider practically danced around her, stupefying not on her, but the other two Reaper's that were fighting Cider not too long ago.
As they watched, the skeleton Reaper that was accompanying Megumi arrived behind him.
"I told her not to rush in," He stated.
Dove glanced back, finding Megumi's Reaper just watching Cider climb over Megumi.
"W-w-what the hell!??" Dove stumbled back onto his butt and Chime watched the Reaper with a cold sweat running down her face.
Dove reoriented his eye, as if recognizing him, "W-wait aren't you-"
"That demon child…"
"Huh?"
"He's with us."
Dove looked on, in surprise hearing the Reaper's words.
"I think someone stole his core off of us when we weren't paying attention. It wasn't until he entered his chaos state that I realized he wasn't with us."
The Reaper glanced back at Dove. "I take responsibility for the trouble he caused. I'll try keeping him on a shorter leash."
"Are you sure you want to keep this demon with you? We can take him off you hands." Chime echoed.
"Ah, Chime. That won't be necessary. But what brings you to Gondola?"
"It's a private matter." Chime glanced at Megumi who looked relieved, despite Cider's playful nature being on full display. "I'm also assisting someone else, like you are."
"You mean this kid here?" The Reaper, mentioning Dove.
"No. Hahahaha."
"I see."
"HEY!" Dove shouted.
He held out a note pad with a pen, bowing in respect. "Can I get your signature please!!"
This surprised the Reaper.
"He's a fan of yours. He's heard of all your past exploits."
The Reaper sighed. Quickly signing the notepad to please the other reaper.
"Megumi! We're leaving."
Megumi turned back to the Reaper. "O-okay."
At this moment Cider finally realized that the Reaper was with them. "You!"
He hopped off of Megumi, dashing forth to attack the Reaper.
"Wait! Cider! He's not here to hurt you!" Megumi yelled.
Ignoring Dove and Megumi, he closed in to cut the Reaper with his now black clawed hands.
Unexpectedly, the Reaper used his bone tentacle to grab Cider by the leg, slamming him to the ground.
Cider quickly recovered, swung and swiped at the Reaper, all the while he was hanging upside down by the bone tentacle. Everyone witnessing this, was unsure what to make of the scene before them as Cider rambled on, and swung away like a puppy defending its master.
The Reaper could only sigh exhaustedly from this.
"Will you stop if I promise to buy some Ice cream?"
Cider immediately ceased. He continued to stare at the Reaper indignantly. "Maybe."
********
Cider ate away at a large Banana Split ice cream with vanilla and chocolate scoops.
Meanwhile Megumi slowly licks away at a cherry flavored ice cream, awkwardly watching Cider eat his.
They were all eating at an outside an ice cream shop table where people and demons alike passed by them. Watching them from afar was Dove and Chime, who also got their own scoops of ice cream.
"Hey chime?"
"Mmm?"
Yes?"
"Why did you get ice cream?" Dove asked.
"Hmm?"
"I don't know." Chime promptly threw away the Ice cream.
Both chime and Dove carefully observed their group quietly as they all ate their treat.
Soon, Cider finished his unnaturally large portion of Ice cream. Gasping in satisfaction with the treat.
Shortly after he glared back at the Reaper pointing indignantly once again. "Don't think I've forgiven you for what you did! You hurt my friend an-"
Cider was pulled up by his legs once more. Once again he attempted to fight the Reaper in vail.
"Well that didn't last long." The Reaper said. He then glanced back at Megumi seeing her a little unsure about something. "Is something on your mind."
Megumi seemed a little bit distracted.
"Megumi?" Cider suddenly called out.
"Huh?"
That same instant Cider was released and like a professional, he landed on his feet.
"O-oh sorry I was just a little distracted." Megumi smiled a little more gingerly. "Honestly, I'm so relieved you're alright. I couldn't be happier. All this time I could never make a friend. All because anybody I touched would die within the day."
Suddenly, Megumi dropped her ice cream, freaking out.
Cider and the Reaper became alerted.
"What happened!?" Cider blurted.
The Reaper scanned the area for any suspicious person.
"M-m-m-my gloves!!!" Megumi screeched.
Megumi quickly dug her jacket pockets, pants pockets, frantically searching for her gloves.
"Gloves?" The Reaper questioned. "You didn't have gloves when you arrived.
A face instantly became flushed, realizing that the Reaper was correct. She instantly hid her face, completely embarrassed by her outburst.
"Here you go."
Megumi brought her head up seeing a waiter holding a fresh new cone of cherry ice cream.
He was tall, long black-hair and squinted eyes that made it hard to tell its color. And just with a glance, she could tell that he was from an Asian descent, Chinese perhaps.
"Oh. Thank you."
Just as she took the ice cream in hand the waiter suddenly held out his hands in expectancy. "That'll be five-hundred opal"
"Eh. What?" Megumi became stupefied hearing the absurd sounding number for ice cream. It didn't take long for Megumi to realize that he was asking for money with people asking for various amounts of 'opal'. It became an easy comparison to the normal dollar bill.
"Five-hundred opal?" the Reaper asked.
"Yeah. two-hundred for the new ice cream, and three-hundred for the mess I have to clean up." he said, with an undeterred smile.
"Eh?" Megumi's mouth began to twitch.
Suddenly she crushed the ice cream cone in her hand, spilling her new ice cream on the floor.
"Oh, that's unfortunate."
He quickly pulled out a notebook, ripping off a page from it and showing it to Megumi. "That'll be one-thousand opal now… If you want another ice cream of course"
"Why are you charging me for you to clean up my mess?" she asked.
"Because you made a mess, of course. Besides, I can't go home without getting paid." The waiter gestured with his hands, almost tauntingly.
The Reaper got up. "I'll handle the-"
"No! I'm sure she can handle her own tab, she looks like a lovely woman with a bright future ahead of her."
"Hmm?" the waiter cocked his head seeing Megumi starting to seethe and become more annoyed.
Without warning Cider hooked himself over the man, releasing a menacing dark aura. The waiter glanced up curiously. He laughed, questioning what Cider was doing.
"I-I can't pay you" She suddenly said. "I-I'm broke."
"Hey Cider."
Cider immediately turned to Megumi.
"Could you get off him?"
After a few moments, Cider reluctantly hopped off the waiter.
"Ahh~. Thanks. I feel much lighter now. Amazing how easy it is to lighten the load. Hahahah."
The waiter stretched his body out nonchalantly. "If you're broke I think I could think of a way for you to pay off your tab."
At this point Megumi regretted telling Cider to get off him. Luckily for her the Reaper intervenes, giving a small red orb to the waiter.
"That's enough. We're not here so she could do extra work. It's been a long day already."
"Aww… That's disappointing."
The Reaper instantly grabbed Megumi, pulling her from the shop. Cider hurried along with them, childishly calling the Reaper names.
"Maybe I'll see you all later." The Waiter waved.
Megumi could only glared back with annoyance. "Later?"
He ignored this looking back at the small pill sized orb with an amused smile. "Oh, yeah. Forgot to give her that replacement ice cream… Eh, I'll cover it next time."
Back with Megumi and her group, They walked through the streets of business and markets, past all the different looking demons and regular looking people.
"Sorry about him." The Reaper suddenly said.
"What? O-oh. It's not your fault. I wasn't expecting to meet someone so… eccentric??" Megumi tried forcing a smile, but practically failed.
"Hey. Hey. Hey. Where are we going."
"Oh right." Megumi glanced back at Cider, Jumping around traveling ahead of them now.
"Can we go in h-"
He was instantly pulled back by the reaper's Bone tentacle.
"Hey!" Cider yelled.
"New rules. You will follow my lead and the instructions. I don't need a demon of you caliber causing trouble for this city. The Reaper pulled from his robe a small collar, putting it on Cider.
"What's that for?" Megumi asked.
"If he enters the state of chaos again, the collar will zap him back to normal."
She was a little surprised to hear this since the collar looked very average. Glancing at the store that Cider was pointing to earlier it seemed to have a variety of gloves on display.
"Uh… Hey, Mr. Reaper? Can you get me some new gloves?"
The Reaper glanced over to the shop with Cider trying to hit him in vain still. He sighed. "Fine. But let's make it quick." He released Cider who fell to the ground hard. He quickly got up, following the two inside.
"Wait for me!"
"By the way Megumi… Feel free to call me 'K'."
"K…? Sure. Thanks, K"
********
Elsewhere in a stony prison, The demon women from the woods, trek past cell after cell looking for a particular person in mind. Most of the cells she passed by contained gnarly and grotesque looking demons, misshapen into beast.
Some of these demons went on the attack, while others cowered as she passed by them. Eventually she reached a cell with a normal looking human.
"There you are."
"Did you find him Annabelle?" a strange looking demon with Pale green skin approached from behind her.
"Yes. and it looks like he's raring to go."
The man in the cell glared back angrily at the two demons before him.
The man had short blonde-hair, blue-eyes and had a piercing on his left ear. He also wore a torn blue shirt and combat pants. Around his neck was a strange black looking collar.
""What do you want from me now?" He questioned.
A shock was immediately sent through him, emanating from the collar. He cried out in pain, falling to his knee and clutching the collar itself.
Be careful Dino… You might just become a demon if you're not careful." Anna taunted.
Soon the pain passed. Dino glanced back up, much more calmly. "Fine… What do you need from me… Today?
Anna curled a smile, satisfied. "Good."
"You have a very important mission, I need you to rescue someone very important to me. And failure is NOT an option."