Chapter 6: A Job after "Graduation"

But when Matt turned, there was no one there.

“Come with me, let us take a walk” A surprising voice.

And then the room shifted, twisted, and crumpled in on itself.

All that was visible was the enormous ashy hand as it formed a cup to hold him in.

“What do you see, as a hypothetical?”

A command, once again.

“I see ash.”

From his seat on top of the nearly invisible hand, that was all that was visible of the outdoors.

“Ah, can you not notice the beasts then? They stand out quite starkly to me.”

“...”

“Like this creature right here.”

The other hand stretched out beside him, revealing another demon, a mishmash of beaks and eyes.

The demon squirmed as the grip of the ethereal hand tightened and buckled it into pieces of flesh before getting thrown violently across the blue sky.

Forshik was giving off a casual air while doing some of the most ridiculous feats Matt had seen yet.

“Intelligence without the ability or inclination to communicate is worthless, don’t you agree?”

“Can’t they be used as labor?” A retort drawn out by his mere presence.

“Plenty of more qualified workers, people in the family, such as you. You’ll be doing this sort of work eventually, it’s a trial period to find out where you stand like a soldier.”

“Where do I stand?”

“You see, a person can only do so much by themselves no matter how much they work, and as a member of the family, you are expected to take up some of the slack. As you’ve experienced not having a backer, it’s doubtless you would agree, no?”

The tone tentatively shifted.

“Yes, I’ll be honored to join,” Matt responded. Although he feared a supernatural contract, the demon’s power spoke for itself… and the fact that he would likely get abandoned and die in the middle of nowhere if he said no.

“Great, let’s get started then. Notice anything different?”

It took a while to realize it but it suddenly wasn’t very cold. Matt’s entire body, apart from his legs, was now blue.

‘When did that happen?’

“You’ll live on one of the lower floors, call yourself… Ying Yang, alright? Tell the trainer that you’re a new combat recruit.”

His attention had drifted away from his surroundings for just a moment and now he was indoors once again.

Windows with blue frames of ice and flooring made of whitish slabs of some marble-like material, this area was filled with humanoids.

Seemingly more well-lived than the “upper floors”, ash was hurriedly swept and tossed out the open windows by normal-looking humans (excluding their blue skin alongside flecks of white.)

Matt was ignored, but looking around there was only one direction to go, the other way led to the outside.

Walking without feeling the constant pain was a relief, although he had grown used to it aching outside of direct contact with ash.

It was likely that Ronald was here, situated in one of the strangely decorated rooms. The entire style could be called… brutalism personalized? It was as if art was carved from what was originally solid ice. Looking at the floor a bit more closely, it wasn’t composed of slabs, just lines of carvings made to emulate slabs.

Looking at what seemed to be a servant, Matt walked up to them.

“I’m a new combat recruit, do you know where the trainer is?”

The humanoid he talked to was fat, had a white mohawk next to the rest of his blue hair, a flat nose, white freckles, wearing a white uniform, and was holding a broom of some sort.

“Down the hall, there’s a room with training puppets, ask in there.”

Without a word of thanks, Matt sped away.

The once loud steps onto the floor were drowned out by chatter, and Matt caught snippets of conversation.

“I’ve not seen that, do you think…”

“It’s not that bad, you think a storm’s expected? Fucking obviously you numb-”

“Inspiring stuff you know, do you have plans next week?”

“That’s not the noise a soldier makes, what the hell are…”

But Matt drew some stares as he walked, red legs and a fresh face.

This was his home now.

___

A teenager in(?) high school.

Yina wanted to buy a coffee to celebrate graduation, so for the first time in a long time, she left as the school bell rang.

Streams of students began flooding out, snipping at her heels as she ran down the stairs.

The reason she didn’t wait for the initial flood to subside: her class was nearest to the stairs and her teacher ended class early today.

Along the way, she could hear the screams of students getting caught and forced back into detention (the school was insane for having classes and detentions AFTER graduation) and students still crying from the news of their college applications being rejected.

She was lucky in that regard, heading to attend a public college with enough scholarships to pay zilch. Having a private school as a high school was bad enough, an “private” experience she wouldn’t repeat.

The clean walls couldn’t disguise the smell of weed and whatever other substances the rich and stupid indulged in, the bathrooms a hazard to health and a testament to the patience of the highly paid janitors cleaning.

Said staff was her friends, with both teacher and security guard waving at her as she said a hasty goodbye.

It was the last day of school after a week of nonsense after graduation, and Yina was happy.

So when she got to the coffee shop to realize it had closed down months, perhaps a full year ago, she was suitably depressed.

As if prompted, it suddenly began to rain.

Before she knew it, she was fully soaked in water from the all too sudden shower.

With her clothes soaked, she was in no hurry to get out of the rain and instead stared at the ground’s puddles forming as people ran for useless cover.

It was in dreary weather that she saw what she had avoided for quite some time, ghosts and monsters invisible to most but not her locked in mortal combat.

While others just saw a normal coffee shop going out of business, she saw a gaping hole in the ground, draining water from the sidewalks.

Things had gotten worse lately.