Chapter 26: Chapter. 26: Contrasting Perspectives

The day was yet to be over. After eating in the communal space that seemed to be part of the neighborhood, and getting weird stares from kids, we eventually left the place. Instead of going to our new place of residence we went back to the hotel by using a taxi.

I had to say, it was convenient as a method of transportation, but it was slightly annoying having to wait every time. Not like I minded too much. The sight of passing buildings made me relax quite a bit. Free of the worries of the Underworld or the issues I had caused.

“So, Kaiti,” Ash casually called.

“Yea?” I turned to look at her only to see her doing little kicks into the air like a child.

“How about we just get a car?” She said with a sigh.

I paused. “Can we do that?”

She nodded. “Why not? You can just drive us everywhere.”

I stared at her with utter confusion. “Why do you think I know how to drive? I could barely do it with a carriage, let alone… This.” I gestured at the surroundings.

“Eh?” She let out a disappointed sound. “How about you just learn? I mean, I thought it was covered in Underworld training. But, if not just learn.”

“You can just learn? I mean⁠— aren’t accidents particularly lethal?”

Ash shook her head hearing my question. “You can just pay others to teach you.”

My eyes widened in surprise at that moment. “You can?” I turned to look at Ash expecting reassurance only to be given a calm nod. “Huh…” Money wasn’t quite a new concept to me, but in the Underworld it wasn’t as useful.

I mean, you could buy food and stuff, there was order in chaos. But you couldn’t just buy a hotel room or pay someone to teach you how to fight, or drive. Wait…

“Do you know how to drive?” I asked Ash suddenly.

“Huh?” She looked at me with confusion. “Yeah… Why?”

“Why don’t we just get a car and you drive it?” I asked the obvious.

Ash’s face contorted and she scoffed. “Yeah, right… Rather just be a couch potato.”

“Couch potato?” I paused hearing what she had just said. A potato that grows on the couch? Were those a thing? And how did those even taste?

Ash ended up in a somewhat sour mood, though it was close to her normal mood. And I ended up too distracted wondering what a lot of the terms I had seen Ash use.

◇ ◇ ◇

We checked out of the hotel, Ash carried practically nothing and I had my two bags of clothes and my backpack along with me. Though, in spite of carrying quite a lot I didn’t really feel like returning and calling it a day.

Ash was… Well she was looking at her phone. She… She had been on her phone quite a bit lately. Well, at least she used it more than I did. What was so appealing about the glass brick anyway? I mean, it was useful, but…

That was it. Useful. I wanted Ash to see… A bit more of the human world. I turned to look at her, as she sensed my pause.

“What’s wrong?” Ash looked at me with confusion.

“That’s what’s wrong.” I pointed at the phone. “Why are you always on the phone?”

“Because it’s free entertainmentment?” Ash looked at me as if I was dumb.

“Then how about I show you entertaining things that are not…” I took a quick look at the device. “Phone related…”

Ash pondered for a second. “Sure.”

◇ ◇ ◇

First was the aquarium.

“Isn’t it cool?” It was mostly empty⁠— I assumed due to time of the day.

“Isn’t it just a bunch of fish?” Ash asked bewildered.

“Well, yeah but these ones aren’t bloodthirsty nor full of hatred.” I added.

“That’s part of the fun, these are just lame fish.” Ash sighed.

I frowned. “How are they lame?”

“You clearly haven’t…” Ash trailed into a bright mood. “You clearly haven’t made a fish war happen at your mansion’s pool.”

I paused. “Is that what you used your pool for?”

“Of course.” Ash nodded. “What else would I use it for? Bathing?”

“Yeah?”

Ash shook her head in disapproval. “You’re clearly too sheltered Kaiti, haven’t even seen the fun side of the Underworld. Sure the place sucks, but there are fun sides too.”

I wasn’t quite following but decided to ask anyway. “What are the fun sides?”

“Have you ever played undead-tag-the-hound?” Ash’s question made me feel incredibly confused.

“No?”

Ash nodded. “Exactly. Have the undead chase the hound around until the hound eventually dies, perhaps save the thing if you feel pity.”

I felt much more disconnected from Ash by the second. “That just sounds cruel?”

Ash scoffed. “Everything in the Underworld is cruel.”

“Yeah, but… “ I sighed. “I still don’t like it…”

Ash looked at me with a small frown. “Kaiti,” she called. “You… What, exactly, was your experience growing up?”

“Eh?” I assessed her emotions to make sure she was serious. “What do you mean?”

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She massaged her forehead. “You’re just too soft, and while you lacked training or whatever, I expected you to be much less… Empathetic? Like don’t get me wrong, I just didn’t expect you to feel bad for the beasts of the Underworld too.”

“I…” Why did I even feel bad? “It’s just…”

Ash sighed. “Just forget about it…” Turning around she decided to go sit at the bench in the middle of the hallway.

I accompanied her, but didn’t say much, choosing to just think instead.

I felt just a bit bad in retrospect. I didn’t really have a reason to say it’s cruel. My experiences with the Underworld were unpleasant to say the least. The entire place was chaotic, and it made me depressed. Beasts were mindless, and those of other realms generally got eaten unless they were strong enough to fend for themselves. And yet I’d feel bad for torturing a hound? Killing… No. But the things Ash had said sounded wrong to me.

Ethics… I wasn’t unfamiliar with the word, but I never really placed emphasis on it. What I felt was right. It didn’t feel right to torture those beasts that hadn’t done anything to me, and it didn’t even feel right to torture those that had done something to me.

I looked at Ash, whose annoyance had vanished like the dry air.

“Sorry Ash…” I apologized to her, she was now on her phone. “I don’t think it has to do with how I grew up. To be honest, it was mostly uneventful, I didn’t really go outside of my house unless it was for training, and the others… Well they hated me for being a Grim Reaper… But in spite of everything, I don’t think I’d want to torture them. It just sounds wrong.”

Ash sighed. “I suppose you can see it as torture. For me those things were never alive to begin with.” She looked at the glass with the fishes. “The beasts and monsters are just aggressive for the sake of being aggressive.”

“I suppose…” I couldn’t really disagree.

“So they aren’t really worth thinking about as beings deserving of compassion or whatever the church calls it nowadays. If I can use them to bring myself some entertainment then it’s a bonus.”

Church? Wasn’t that an earth thing? I hesitantly nodded and provided my thoughts back.

“I think it’s…” I tried to put it in a different way, but couldn’t think of anything. “I think it’s just my ethics?” I sighed. “I don’t know, it just feels wrong.”

Ash shrugged, not particularly feeling anything. “Things are just like that I suppose. Not gonna get mad at you over stupid things. If you were adamant on not killing a hound or ghoul or whatever, then I would actually get mad.”

I nodded in response, it was an agreement nod. I couldn’t let those things roam around…

“Anyway,” Ash continued. “Forget I said anything, you’re just a bit too weird.”

There was a silence of half a second before I processed her words. “Is that a compliment or an attack?” Ash didn’t reply, and just smiled at her phone, making me annoyed. “At least say something.”

“Dunno.”

I stared at her for another second before frowning. “Alright, let’s just go elsewhere…” I grabbed Ash by the sleeve and we went our way, elsewhere more entertaining. But she put up resistance.

“You know what?” She said suddenly. “I’ll show you something that isn’t boring.”

“Like what?”

She grinned. “You’ll see.”

◇ ◇ ◇

In the end, I didn’t think defeat would be so sweet.

The… tres leches cake was just… too good. I didn’t know how it was possible for soggy bread to taste so good, but I had been defeated.

“This is boring.” I offhandedly said putting more cake in my mouth.

“Debatable.” Ash replied while she ate. “Better than anything you could’ve come up with.”

“That⁠—” I frowned and decided to look out the window instead. “I can’t really say anything else would’ve been better.” I meekly replied, staring at the parking lot.

The restaurant was quite fancy with warm colors, cozy coves of wood and fancy tables. The entire place was closer to an entire building rather than a small shop, and to be honest I quite enjoyed the rich fragrance that permeated the place.

I couldn’t help but admit it to Ash. “This is pretty nice…”

“I know.” She nodded with slight pride. “Venturing outside that one time was quite great.”

“That one time?” Ash nodded once again as if it was just normal.

Turning back to the cake I decided to not say anything and just enjoy it. A few dozen minutes later it was gone, and Ash generously paid for the meal. Well it was just a cake and milk as a beverage… Did it bother me?

Absolutely not.

And like that we stood up and headed to the entrance, the distant voices or the hasty steps did not make me pause. As I turned the corner the sounds got closer, and by the time I felt their feelings get too close it was too late. A kid crashed onto me, making me take two steps back.

Ash paused and looked at me with pure inquisitive confusion. She was on her phone. I looked at the kid who was rubbing his bottom, he had golden ruffled hair and wore a shirt with a muscular man fisting? towards me? I couldn’t quite make sense of it, but the kid seemed familiar.

“Zac!” The mother called as she turned the corner.

“I am sorry.” He apologized as he turned to look at me before freezing. “Tree lady!”

“Eh?” What? There was only one kid that had called me that before… Well I had only met about two kids…

“Oh, it’s the Tree lady.” The mother suddenly said as if all her worries disappeared. She nudged her kid ⁠— Zac ⁠— close to her. “Quick, apologize to Tree lady, and do it properly.” She said with a rather serious voice.

Zac paused and looked down. “I am sorry Tree lady, I was too distracted and accidentally bumped into you…” His voice came out sad, he was no longer happy.

“It’s okay…” I reassured him, unable to decide on whether to tell them my name or not. “I am not hurt… I am…” I felt something die a bit inside of me. “Tree lady after all…”

The kid as if I had spoken magic words nodded hurriedly and didn’t seem that down about it anymore. Soon they walked past us.

“Sorry about that.” The mother apologized in a quiet voice as she entered.

I sighed. However, an unexpected source of small joy appeared beside me.

“Tree lady, huh?” Ash smiled in amusement. “Funny nickname.”

“That was…” I looked away. “A mistake, okay?”

“Sure…” Ash said, not really paying attention and chuckling to herself.

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