A myriad of footsteps echoed through the snowy forest as they made their way down the path. The air was unbearably cold, so much so that even after layering up, the group didn't feel particularly warm. They had traveled for a few days past the village and were currently en route to the next one. In the center of them was Ryuji. It had been a few days since they set out, but he already felt like his life had been put back in order. Well, except for one thing.

"Dot, are you seriously going to latch on to me for the rest of my days?"

Her gloved hands only clamped down on his forearm harder. "Is there a problem with that, bucko? You should be thankful you have a be-a-utiful gal on your arm at all times. What's not to love?"

"Hmm, maybe the lack of blood flow?"

The small girl looked away snootily and spoke with the worst rich accent he had heard. "A small price to pay, I assure you."

"If you want Compadre, I could hook onto your other arm. Think of all the men we pass that would be looking at you in envy!"

Even in the arctic-like cold, Jessy refused to put away her hat in favor of something that might actually protect her ears. And over the usual winter coat you would expect to see in this weather, she still managed to have on a leather jacket. At the very least, you could call her beyond dedicated.

"Yeah, I think anyone who sees that will be probably just be creeped out about what I'm into."

At the exact moment he finished talking, a boot lodged itself into his side. The gunman that boot belonged too quickly trotted up next to Rhea's side and began making idle chatter. He heard something about "Being rude!" and "I'm hot, aren't I?".

"But you know, I really was hoping that'd get you to run off too."

"Hmph, I walk around with no eyeballs in my head Ryuji, do you really think I'm gonna let being small get me down?"

He looked up to the grey sky that he noticed was always grey and heaved a great sigh. "Do you see what I have to deal with on a daily basis!?"

The object of his conversation Ash looked around nervously before answering. "She seems like a good friend to me. She's just looking after you in her own way, I think."

"A good friend!? A good friend does not latch on like some foreign parasite! She doesn't even let go when I go to the bathroom! Speaking of which, I haven't seen you go a single time." His face was the pitch-perfect picture of disgust. "Don't tell me you went while I did."

Everyone around seemed drawn into the conversation and silently awaited the response. A dry laugh left Dot's smug mouth while she wagged her finger back and forth.

"Ryu, my dear, dear, sweet and naive Ryu, have I ever gone to the bathroom?"

"Well, of course, you ha-... oh my god... I need a minute to process this."

"Can we please change the conversation to something a little less disturbing?"

"I second that!"

A disgruntled Queen and energetic Jessy interjected. Meanwhile, Ryuji had his head in his hands as if he was just bestowed some eldritch knowledge no human should ever find.

"I agree!" Rhea's soft smile and cheerful demeanor warmed the hearts of everyone as they trudged forward in the never-ending snow. "We should spend this time getting to know each other and deepening our bond, don't you think?"

From Ryuji's side, a grating voice spoke up before anyone had a chance to. "Hmm, well, in that case, how about we ask the cat why she wears that weird getup all the time. Is it because you're a closet pervert? A cosplayer, maybe? Or perhaps it was on a bargain sale?!"

"Weird getup? I'll have you know that this is what drives men crazy, not that you would know anything about it with that messy smock you're constantly wearing."

A sight to behold, Nyanjo had successfully pulled off a perfect reversal. Up till this point, no one really took Dot seriously when she said something rude. Most just took the same approach they did with children and either ignored her or laughed it off. So, therefore the next thing that happened couldn't really be called a surprise.

Dot's smile didn't fade, but her eyebrows were noticeably twitching."You're lucky I'm a pacifist!"

"Stop loading your revolver, for fucks sake! Jeez, we get our first non-human, and this is how you treat her?"

All eyes suddenly focused on him, and the tension was replaced by something different altogether. It was the same feeling that you might get when you answer a question wrong in class. A sense of very silent judgment was beginning to make Ryuji upset. But before he could lash out, a leather-gloved hand gripped his shoulder.

"Compadre, I know I say this a lot, and most of the time, I'm just palling around, but seriously, are you one round short in the chamber?"

"Huh?"

"I'm asking how you got to be so downright ignorant because if you weren't, you would know that I'm not human, you dipshit! Do humans have blue hair!? I don't think so!"

"Then what the hell are you!?"

"I'm a daemon, you stupid motherfucker!"

"Leave my mother out of this! Also, stop yelling at me; I'm sensitive!"

Queen spoke up with something akin to disappointment in her eyes. "I always knew that hero had shit for brains, but to be this mentally deficient is just scary."

"I thought Mr.Koyanagi was pretty intelligent, but I guess I was wrong..."

"Of all the people to save me, it had to have been a fucking moron."

"I've been to a lot of places in my missionary work, but I think this is the first time I've met someone over the age of ten who didn't know what daemons look like!"

"Now, now everyone, we shouldn't make fun of Ryuji. I'm sure he just had a rough upbringing, is all."

As every member of his so-called friend group belittled him, Ryuji was starting to feel like he knew next to nothing about this world. From the second he arrived, he had just believed people have weird colored hair in fantasy worlds, and it's not that big of a deal. Not once did he stop to think about why they did or if they were different from humans. He stood there going through the collection of people in his mind with strange colored hair. A face popped into his mind's eye; his hand instinctively reached for the place where he kept her dagger.

A harsh glare made its way into his very bones from the steaming Jessy. "Seriously, you know nothing."

"Oh, Ryu, think she'll call you Jon next?" A surprise smile formed on his face because, despite all frustration being vented toward him, Dot was still one to crack jokes that only he would get.

Jessy quickly interrupted his moment determined to not let this go. "Have you ever wondered why people were always looking at me when we went somewhere?"

"I thought that was because you're loud, weird, and get in everyone's faces spouting nonsense."

"It is not nonsense! It is the very gospel, and I'm not that weird! No, it's because of my blue hair, you dolt!"

Ryuji just nodded along, knowing that arguing with the maniac would lead nowhere, but now that he knew what Jessy was, he had tons of questions. "Where do you come from anyway?"

Jessy sighed before stretching and putting her hands behind her hand. Her eyes seemed to be looking at something farther off than the horizon as she thought about home. "My homeland, Mallen. It's where all the different daemon tribes live. But specifically, I lived out in the sticks way down south."

Queen's voice chimed into the conversation. "It sounds like we won't be able to meet your family then. I was curious about the people who could raise someone so... special."

"Well sorry to say this, but you'd have to make one hell of a detour to get to my village. Considering how far north the capital is, we wouldn't have enough time."

"Don't say that just yet, Jessy. If everyone really wanted to, I'm sure we would have enough time to make it down there and back before our deadline!"

"There's our fearless leader and her unrivaled optimism!"

"Ryu, you should tone it down and wipe some of the brown off your nose."

"Yeah, yeah, shut up. So at the risk of sounding stupid, I'm just going to ask what makes a person a daemon anyway?"

Her eyes gave away all of the annoyance she felt, but she still felt obligated to answer the question. "A long time ago, the primal god of chaos lived in my homeland. To spread his power to his citizens, he spilled a large amount of his blood into the water. Whoever drank it was changed. Some got a hair color change or had their growth stunted. Others were disfigured or got extra extremities. And the unlucky ones that resonated the most with his blood lost their corporeal form altogether, making them living shadows; they were the first demons. So pretty much, if you see someone with weird colored hair and no fluffy ears or anything like that, then they're a daemon."

"Wait, so if I drink the water there, will I change too?"

As if to smack the stupid out of him, Ryuji received a blow to the head. "No! The god of chaos has been stuck in hell for three thousand years! Even if his blood is still in the water, it's so diluted it would never do anything to you."

"I don't think I like your tone." After quickly pointing his finger, Ryuji shouted to the front of the group. "Hey, Rhea? Can we stop and set up camp? My feet are starting to kill me."

A few hours later, under the blacked-out sky, Ryuji warmed himself up next to a cozy fire, making sure to keep enough distance from it. His stomach felt full from all the cooked-up mystery meat he had just eaten. He wasn't too sure exactly what it was, but since Rhea was scarfing it down, he figured it couldn't be too dangerous. His eyes wandered to the kid sitting next to him. Ash was fidgeting with meat and seemed to be giving it an appraisal.

Ryuji leaned over and whispered so the nosy people around him wouldn't but in. "Hey! I've barely seen you talk to anyone. Are you good?"

Ryuji was sure that the blush creeping up on Ash's face was not because of how cold he was. With his own hushed voice, he replied sheepishly. "I'm not so good talking around girls, and the only guys here are you and Elio."

"So what I'm getting is, you want to talk to them, but you don't know how." A simple head nod said all that needed to be. "I think I can help with that; just give me a second."

"What do you-"

Before Ash could ask or figure out what was going on, Ryuji had already gone beyond the point of no return. "Hey, Jessy! Got any questions for our little man Ash?"

Ash was a deer in headlights. Meanwhile, Jessy stopped twirling her gun for a second. With a smile, she continued her tick of fiddling with a firearm. "Where ya from, cutie?"

"I-I'm from North Kevic..." He looked around, only to notice everyone was paying attention to him now. Under pressure, he spat out some more words. "It's very warm there, well um, compared to here anyway's that is... It's nice... there."

"Hoh? So what are you doing out here then?"

Not missing a beat or seeming to care about his awkwardness at all, Jessy continued to lay into him with questions like she was some journalist on a hot case. Ash was a fish on land with his mouth opening and shutting without ever letting out a sound. Just as he was about to die of embarrassment, a strong arm hooked its way around him, and Ryuji spoke up.

"Ash wants to be an adventurer, like us!"

She had an eyebrow raised, but Jessy was still giving her signature warm smile. "Is that right?"

"Yes, it is! I want to be an adventurer more than anything!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble kid, but I can't sense a lick of anything from you. I suggest training real hard before you take the plunge into this life."

"It's fine! The reason you don't feel anything is because I'm an esper!"

"An esper!? What area are you in?"

"A5... I want to get better, I really do, but hiring a teacher specifically for my power is pretty expensive."

Ryuji decided it was time to chine in once more. "Hello, hello? Dummy here; what's an area in this context?"

The shine was in Ash's eyes once again and brighter than ever. It was like he only came to life when he was talking about his passions. Ryuji was pretty sure that if Ash was like this all the time, he would have no trouble talking to anyone.

"Espers aren't ranked like other classes are. We go by areas or regions of power. Each region is ranked from one to nine, with one being the lowest and nine the highest. The ranks are determined by usefulness both on the battlefield and outside it." Ash talked excitedly like he just remembered how awesome his powers were, or maybe it was because other people were showing interest in them. "So that's why I'm A5. I'm middle of the road, but since the higher areas are exponential, I'm actually pretty weak, at least when it comes to combat."

"I see, I see. So what's your power then? I'm pretty sure you've never told me."

Everyone seemed on the edge of their seat to hear what he was about to say. The question on everyone's minds was simple; What would his power be?

"I can control waves."

The sudden tension was immediately cut and thrown overboard. Instead of having any impact, it felt more like a small ripple. There was a simple explanation for that.

"You mean like water?"

Ash immediately understood the second she asked her question. He was no longer in the amazing city of science, where everyone was given an equal education with the latest findings. He knew that Jessy spoke for them all. No one there understood the concept of physics besides, 'throw thing hard thing go far.' Well, except for one of them.

"No, you dumbo, he probably means like particle physics stuff, right?"

The young espers eyes opened widely while his brow furrowed. "Uh yeah... how do you know about that?"

"Yeah, that's a good question. You don't even know where places are on a map most of the time, but you know science stuff?"

Ryuji froze up at Dot's question. The looks of intrigue around him were impossible to escape. In short, he had messed up big time. In a situation such as this, he had only one choice, lie hard.

"Wait, I was right? I just spouted off some bullshit, but it turns out I was right!? Can you believe that!?"

The look everyone gave him told him that, yes, they can believe it, all except for the person sitting next to him. Ash's gaze was sharp and unnerving. Ryuji felt a lump in his throat and urged the conversation down a different path.

"So earlier you said something about how other classes are ranked; what did you mean by that? I thought espers were grandmasters."

Ash seemed ready to ignore him and ask his own question but then looked as if he caught himself. With an overdramatic eye roll, he answered. "I don't mean in terms of mastery; I meant in terms of power."

"Oooooooh, still don't get it."

For once, Ash was beginning to lose his patience and cool, but before he could pop off, Rhea interjected. "It's impossible to tell how powerful or valuable someone is just using their mastery, and even then, some grandmasters can be much stronger than others. So to properly evaluate everyone's strength, there are ranks given to adventurers, rankers, and military alike."

An excited and rural voice cut through. "I've been meaning to ask you about that. What do you reckon our ranks are?"

Rhea pursed her lips in thought before returning to her smile. "Well, you should all be at least Mid since you passed the academy with flying colors, but how about we find out right now!"

Everyone seemed oddly excited about something that sounded pretty boring to Ryuji. As everyone rose along with the girl attached to him, he thought back to his last test at that awful school. Ryuji did not like where this was going.