Chapter 23: Chapter. 23: Finishing Touches

The meal at the steakhouse ended somewhat uneventfully. Well I thought it was gonna end uneventfully. Until…

“Kaiti, you can’t only eat cheesecake.” The Old man said with a deep frown. He was certainly, upset.

“Why not?”

The Old man sighed hearing my reply. “You’re gonna get diabetes from eating only sweets. And even if you don’t, it’s still terrible for your health.”

But I wasn’t even human. And what was ‘diabetes’ even?

“I’ll be fine.” I reassured him.

Well that’s how it had gone… I had thought he would just let it go. But instead he went into a rant about me being so young and already having awful habits. Something about dying early into my fifties. In the end, I relented and agreed to eat some actual food, as he described it.

Some few minutes later I had a steak, it was a meaty slab grilled over flames. Charred crusty edges, a raw interior and lots of juices. Was it even edible? I poked it with a fork and the Old man simply nodded at me.

Here goes nothing. I thought as I tore off a piece with the knife and put it into my mouth. I chewed, there was charcoal, then there was bitterness, and then juice. I ate another piece. And another one. And another one. The Old man this time around couldn’t stop smiling at me. ‘I won’, written all over his face.

In the end, I devoured the steak. It wasn’t as good as cheesecake but I certainly liked it over anything that I had tried at the cafe.

Soon, the Old man bid farewell after we were done eating. Apparently he had places to be. Normally I would’ve been upset, but I also had to go. Namely, go look for Ash, help her. And then⁠— well I was going to think about other things after. For now I didn’t want to see her upset anymore.

At that moment, I couldn’t help but look at the sky. Things were really complicated, huh? I never really thought… Well I never thought of the Underworld like that. I couldn’t fight the entire Underworld, or rather; I couldn’t even fight most things. But I wanted to try to change things.

Because it was what I wanted…

◇ ◇ ◇

After dropping off my clothes at the hotel without too much trouble, and receiving another room card, since Ash had taken it to leave. I arrived at the headquarters, though figuring out where it was located was troublesome. Thankfully my phone tracked places I had been to⁠— wait that sounded a bit wrong in retrospect…

I went past the receptionist who didn’t even pay attention to me, and eventually pressed my finger on the elevator. It didn’t bleed. The button lit up and a few seconds later the door opened with a chime.

A man stepped out wearing a suit and a coat, he had a receding white hairline and sharp eyes. And upon seeing me, his eyes widened and he paused. At the same time, I was also shocked.

“Kaiti?”

“Mr…” What a coincidence… “Sullivan…”

“What brings you here, is it the law firm on the upper floors?” He asked with soft confusion.

Law… firm…?

“Is it about the apartment?” He asked a small frown forming on his face. “You should know that the contract covers such situations.”

I hurriedly shook my head. “I am here for something else. We are still going to meet each other tomorrow, no?”

Hearing my reply his mood was somewhat appeased. “I see…”

I stepped past him on the elevator and mashed a random button, as he finished digesting my reply he turned back to me.

“Wait, then why are you he⁠—” The elevator door closed.

I sighed. Why was he even here? And what was a law firm? I didn’t hate Mr. Sullivan, but it was certainly a run that I didn’t want at that moment. At the same time, I needed to make my finger bleed to use the elevator properly.

I grumbled with slight annoyance as I bit the tip of my thumb off. Sharp pain shot through my finger making me yelp slightly. I had bitten it a bit too aggressively. Now that I was bleeding, I mashed another random button with my finger and⁠—

It just spread all over the panel. I looked at it in shock and hurriedly tried to wipe it off with my hands only spreading it further. I couldn’t use my clothes because they were white! The panel kept having buttons light up left and right.

◇ ◇ ◇

My hands were red, they had slight blood stains. The panel was muddled as if someone had run mud through it and just left markings. But it didn’t look like blood anymore. I sighed as I stood before the elevator once again in the first floor. Mr. Sullivan wasn’t present thankfully.

Please work. I mashed my bloodied finger onto the button, and it greedily sucked it. Not a few seconds later the door opened again with a chime.

I entered it with slight skepticism, but the panel of the elevator wasn’t muddled at all. Was it a different elevator? The door automatically closed and the elevator began moving without me pressing any buttons.

After it opened with the signature sound of a chime, I saw the lobby and⁠—

“Oh, you’re here, perfect.” Her signature indifferent voice that carried a hint of playfulness was unmistakable. Ash grabbed onto my hand.

“What is perfect?” I asked with confusion. To my surprise no one was dead so far. I mean, if she handled the conflict in an… Underworld-y manner, lots of beings would’ve died.

“You’re officially being registered as my partner.” She said with a pleased tone.

“Is that good?” I wasn’t really following to be honest.

Ash just nodded in reply and took me before the receptionist, who gave Ash and paper. We found a random table at the back to sit down, and Ash simply stared at me with a small smile. I had a bad feeling.

“What does being your partner entail?” I asked with slight nervousness.

“Well, things like helping me with my missions, I suppose?” Ash said in a thoughtful manner. “At the same time you get access to the armory, training facilities, and your family is liable to financial compensation should you die.”

“Okay…” As it settled onto my brain I frowned. “I didn’t agree to this!”

“But I did.” Ash nodded. “Besides, you can always decline.” Then. Before I could interrupt her, she continued. “However, this also allows you to be stronger and gain more battle experience.”

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I gulped. I definitely needed that. But… “You seem happy about it, how does it help you?”

Ash opened her mouth in surprise with a small gasp. “Well, it lessens my workload I guess? At the same time, they won’t send me onto suicidal missions since you’re not like me.”

That sounded good. But there was another issue. Ash had said they wouldn’t let her be.

“Is that allowed?”

Ash shrugged. “They stand to lose more should I leave to the Underworld. Of course they’d agree and occasionally formally request more serious things.”

I nodded. So it would bring more stability to Ash, or at least that’s how I had interpreted it.

“I’ll do it.” I nodded.

“Great!” Ash smiled and handed me the paper and pen, she moved over to my side and began guiding me through the process.

“Fill your name here, if you want your family to know about your death should it happen also write it down.”

I paused as I wrote Kaiti. I didn’t think dad wanted to find out in such a way of my death should I actually die. Which was… I wanted to say unlikely, but anything could happen. As I was reminded not too long ago.

“Here you want to write about yourself, something like. I want to make this realm a better place⁠— actually just write that.”

I nodded. I wish to make this realm a more stable place.

“Alright, here you just select any of the races listed. I got the sheet for female humanoid.”

There was a list there, with some races I recognized and others… Well they were new.

Succubus, Nymph, those I knew. Reima Demon and Hulder, were unknown ones, among others.

“What do I pick?” I turned back to Ash who seemed to be thinking.

“Well, Hulders are just lame Nymphs, so not that. Reima Demons…” Ash turned to look at me. “I mean you’re missing the backwards curved horns, but you fit the description. You could go with that. Or you can also just select human.” She pointed at the bottom.

Right… “Wait, didn't you say you registered me as human last time?”

“Well, this is a much more formal registration.” Ash shrugged. “Besides, do you expect them to be good at keeping paperwork? All formalities.”

I paused looking over the list, in the end I sighed. “Just choose for me.”

Once I said that, Ash nodded and took the pen, and crossed Reima Demon. Which well I had never heard of before, but it must’ve been fine as a choice. The other options were things like. Are you okay with hunting beasts from various realms? Are you willing to donate your corpse to those of the hostile realms for consumption?

Of course, I agreed to everything. Mostly because Ash mentioned that it was more likely to not raise issues should I agree to everything. After I had finished filling everything we went to the receptionist, and shortly thereafter submitted the form.

“Here, this is your card for general access.” He handed me a golden card with engravings. Did everything operate on cards? I now had three of them… “And this is your badge.” I received the same insignia that Ash had shown me. “You can go now.”

And like that we were dismissed.

“Well, now it’s time to train you.” Ash promptly said.

“Train me?”

Ash solemnly smiled before heading for the elevator, and giving me a pat in the back. There was no contempt or excitement, just a heartfelt feeling. I didn’t really know what to expect.

◇ ◇ ◇

The car ride took one hour.

“One hour for this?” I asked with annoyance, my finger pointing at it. I had thought we almost left the city to get training. I thought it was going to be grueling. But instead, it was it. Under a dilapidated bridge, it was just there.

One hour … One hour to end up under a dilapidated bridge, surrounded by gravel and metal railways with rusted trains. To just find this?

Ash nodded. “Don’t worry there are a lot of them around.”

It was a wisp. A floating ball of flame with no soul or sense of anything, no emotions just something that barely existed. It floated emotionlessly, moving ever so slowly. I was ridiculed. I was being ridiculed!

“How is this training?” I grit my teeth. I didn’t even want to kill it! It was just a wisp!

“Ah, that’s where you are wrong.” Ash waved her finger mockingly. “You’re going to kill it, but without touching it.”

“Ha? Are you serious?”

“Yep,” she chirped. “Kill it with your Grim Reaper aura.”

“That’s not how it works! The aura is…” It definitely didn’t kill things. “A representation of our realm⁠— the soul!”

Ash nodded. “And that thing carries a soul too, just a tiny one. Come on, you should be able to freeze people too with your aura, grab their soul. I’ve seen other Grim Reapers do it.”

I paused hearing the new information. “I can do that?”

“Well I don’t know? That’s why we are here. Now go kill it.”

After Ash said that, she turned around and sat under the shadow. The wisp still just floated there. Could I kill it with just my aura? It didn’t hurt trying, but I didn’t think it would work either.

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