The Deepcut, Ashuradō — Two months later. The Deepcut was the most powerful and respected guild in Yomi; originally established by the second emperor, Azazel the Great. For countless millennia, the building was home to numerous heroes and mercenary alike. The latest additions to the building’s hallowed walls were Mura and Lilith.

Over the past two months, both of them learned the rules and regulations of the guild. The duo were initially excited to begin taking on contracts, however Naraka had forbid it until they were ready. Mura and Naraka mostly spared for those several weeks, with Mura learning the basics of swordsmanship, training with unconventional weapons and how to care for and clean his equipment.

The training was spartan, but Mura remained steadfast. Despite there being much more to teach as Mura had only learned the basics, he was finally allowed to take on small-time contracts by his mentor.

Currently, it was midday as the black sun of Yomi slowly settled down over the horizon. Mura and Lilith walked up the multiple stone steps that led up to the Deepcut; where the building looked out over the city of Ashuradō atop its mountainous home. Mura had a large burlap sack slung over his shoulder. Within the contents of the bag were numerous deceased luskrats, a type of rodent known for their large size and poisonous bite.

“That bag freaking stinks! Ugh, remind me why we wanted to take on contracts again?” Lilith groaned, her legs exhausted from climbing the stairs.

“Trust me, imagine carrying this thing around the whole time! It’s no picnic, I assure you.” Mura replied, his voice altered slightly from breathing through his mouth.

“Hunting vermin… Where are we, in a video game tutorial? We’re never doing a luskrat contract again, Mura. Not even for a hundred-bazillion sols!”

“Bazillion isn’t even a number but I agree,” Mura panted.

They had chased the pests down initially after accepting a contract regarding the infestation of a local tavern. Killing them wasn’t easy. Mura had to quickly chase after and dispatch them with his spear, as Naraka had forbid him from using magic for the contract as it would have been too easy.

—At least I got Lilith all grossed out after crushing that one with my boot, heheh.

Mura and Lilith approached the large circular building at the top of the stairs. It looked quite noble against the sunset.

—I still can’t believe I‘m climbing the same steps Tiamat and Naraka did during their careers… It’s incredible.

“Finally! It’s great to be back home, I swear I’m crashing as soon as we get to our quarters,” Lilith cried out with an ecstatic look on her face.

“You need to work out more, maybe Naraka should be training you?” Mura laughed before Lilith punched him in the side, blushing with her cheeks puffed slightly.

Mura walked to the gates of the Deepcut and took a right, going up to the small outpost where Odokuro like himself dropped off their bounties. There were already a heap of other deceased bounties dropped off near the outpost. They were all humanoid with caved-in bodies, heads and blackened veins. 

He ignored these to the best of his ability and looked at the officer manning the outpost, dropping his burlap sack onto the counter with a wet thump.

“Here you are, good sir! One sack of luskrats!” Mura said.

“We got them just for you!” Lilith chimed in sarcastically.

The officer looked at the sack and held his nose, giving a disgusted look.

“I see… Wonderful. You have the signed contract?” the officer asked.

Mura nodded in confirmation and fished around his coat pockets until he found the folded piece of parchment. It had been signed by the guild master initially as all contracts were. After accepting it, it was then signed by the tavern owner and Mura himself.

“Wonderful…” the officer said, clearly wanting his shift to be over.

He stamped the contract as having been completed and printed off a yellow ticket before tearing it and handing the stub to Mura.

“Since this is your first contract, you’ll head on over to the banker inside the Deepcut. Give her this and she’ll give you your money and any points you earned.”

Mura plucked the ticket from the man’s fingers with a grin.

“Thank you kindly!” Mura said giddily from the excitement.

He and Lilith walked over the brick pathway that led up to the gates of the prestigious Deepcut. The gargantuan wooden doors that sealed the entrance were intimidating as always.

“With all this money we’re gonna get, we can buy a Ferrari! Then we can mow down all of our enemies in style,” Lilith thought aloud with enthusiasm.

“I don’t think you know how much one of those costs,” Mura said back.

The duo walked up to the massive doors that led inside. The doors were enchanted and having recognized the both of them as Odokuro, opened automatically to allow them entry.

To say that the Deepcut foyer was luxurious would be an understatement. It was a massive circular chamber that stretched up into a domed ceiling decorated with frescoes. In the center of the room was a massive hearth with a roaring fire. There were several plush chairs and sofas to recline on and relax, along with tables for chatting and eating outside of the dining hall; which was three times the size of foyer.

As the doors opened, a burst of warmth overcame them from the toasty inside of the building.

“Ahhh, now that’s more like it.” Lilith sighed happily.

“Tell me about it. Now, if I remember correctly from our tour, the banking room was down the hall to the right?” Mura pondered, racking his brain to recall the directions.

Luckily for them both, there were signs plastered about that told the directions to different parts of the guild. They walked through the foyer which luckily wasn’t too crowded with people today. Winding through the wide hallways, they finally reached the section that was listed as banking and accounting.

Mura opened the door, holding it so Lilith could walk through first. In front of them was an empty waiting room with a marble countertop where a lone banker sat. Bars stretched from the ceiling to the walls across the countertop, protecting any bankers from attempted robberies. Lilith pressed a red button in front of a ticketing machine, printing out a ticket that had the number ‘156’ on it.

“The screen up there say its serving number 156, so I guess we’re already set to go up?” Mura said.

“Must be a slow day,” Lilith replied.

They strolled across the red carpeting to the front of the counter where the banker sat behind. She had pink pigtails and was wearing a black and white mask that covered her whole face. She seemed distracted by something on her phone.

“Um… excuse me?” Mura said.

The masked banker shot up, throwing her phone across the room where it burst into several pieces of plastic. The eyes on her mask were animated and expressive, as if they were her own. Right now they had a worried, panicked look. Similarly, Mura and Lilith had the same expression after her outburst.

“I wasn’t looking at anything! Especially not anything perverse or illegal!” the banker cried out in the most obvious case of lying the duo had ever heard.

“We… didn’t say you were,” Mura said.

“You must own a lot of phones if this is a constant thing…” Lilith said, sweating slightly.

“S-Sorry fellas! My name is Mammon, how can I serve you today?” the banker said, the magically-animated eyes on her mask changing to a friendly expression.

“Well Mammon, you can serve us up some cash, that’s what!” Lilith said with a toothy grin, taking the pay stub from Mura and sliding it across the countertop. She had to stand on her toes to do so.

“Alrighty! Let’s see here… carry the three… check this in… Alright! You don’t have an account!” Mammon said with the blissful tone you could only encounter from one affiliated in customer service.

“Oh, um, it’s Mura. My Thrall is Lilith?”

“Mura! That’s a sexy name!” Mammon said without any care.

Mura and Lilith looked at each other with a confused, silent look.

“I mean what? I didn’t say that! Ahahahaha!” Mammon laughed, her eyes darting around frantically.

“Just… set up the account, please,” Mura said, thoroughly exhausted.

Mammon typed away light-heartedly as she entered Mura’s information into the computer database. After a few moments she printed out what looked like a black credit card with Mura’s picture on it.

“When did you get my picture?”

“Oh, I have my ways~” Mammon giggled. “That card is what all of your money will be stored on, along with your points! You can use money on anything! But points are special and can be used for buying some cool stuff here, like upgrades to your living quarters, weapon discounts, and so on! And hey! If you rack up enough points you can automatically become the tenth in the Jikininki Ten!”

Mammon continued rambling on as the two feigned interest.

“Well actually now that I think about it, the spot is taken right now! But it probably won’t be too long before that changes; folks ranked tenth tend to die off fast. Deadlier work than they expected, you see.”

—Does this girl ever stop talking?

Mura nodded as though he was listening while slipping the card into his wallet. Unbeknownst to him, someone from behind opened the doors to the banking room.

“Thanks, uh… Mammon, I appreciate it—“ Mura said before he felt a strong backhand across his face, knocking him to the ground. His eyes immediately shot up before he saw a girl pointing a bloodied baseball bat at him. Beside her was a familiar face. It was Behemoth and Suzu.

“M-Mister Behemoth, sir! Y-You can’t do that to Mura, it’s not even Number 157’s turn yet,” Mammon said in a shaken tone.

“Shut your mouth, you deranged idiot!” Behemoth roared at her, causing her to cease talking as she began crying behind her mask.

“What the hell is your problem!?” Lilith screamed at Behemoth before Suzu pointed her bat at Lilith’s face.

“You better stop talking too, yokai. Behemoth here is a Jikininki now, Tenth to be exact.” Suzu said as a cocky smile stretched across her face.

“As a Jikininki, I don’t need to wait in lines like the rest of you trash.” Behemoth boasted, having several crumpled pay stubs in his grimy hand.

—He must be the “Tenth” that Mammon mentioned… just my luck.

“You know, Behemoth, I’m willing to excuse that love-tap you just gave me as a mistake on your part,” Mura said with a smile.

Behemoth scowled and turned to face Mura, exposing the mangled left side of his face. His left eye was permanently shut after losing it to Lilith in the Zorastarot Tournament. He also had a stitched scar running down his right eye from the same fight. A massive jagged scar on the left side of his face from where Mura hit him with the warhammer topped off the collection of battle wounds.

“I mean after all, you must not have seen me there on account of the whole… eye thing. Have you thought about changing your name to Cyclops?” Mura said with a grin, wiping off the trickle of blood running down over his lip.

“You looking to die?!” Behemoth roared in a furious scream.

Mura got off the ground, looking directly into Behemoth’s face unintimidated.

“You’re pretty confident that things are gonna go the same they did last time, aren’t you?” Mura bluntly inquired.

Behemoth’s eye narrowed as veins bulged in his head.

“I think it’s time I finish what I started back at the tournament! You wouldn’t even be here right now if that has-been Naraka didn’t scrape you off the ground to be his pet project!” Behemoth yelled. “You need to know your place, runt! And that place will always be underneath my heel!”

Behemoth pulled back his massive arm, readying to punch Mura in the face. Before he could, he felt it freeze in place.

“Wha? What the hell?” Behemoth exclaimed, struggling to move his paralyzed arms as Suzu tried in vain to move his frozen limbs.

Mura saw what had stopped him. Naraka walked into the banking room with a relaxed smile on his face.

“Don’t mind me, Tenth. Just a ‘has-been’ off to reminisce about old times,” Naraka said, tapping Suzu on the forehead which instantly rendered her unconscious.

“What are you doing here, master?” Mura exclaimed in bewilderment.

“Yeah seriously?! Also thanks for the assist,” Lilith added in equal surprise.

“I was coming to see you two, I heard you completed your first contract and wanted to celebrate!”

Naraka smiled as he looked at the blood smear on Mura’s face, healing the wound instantly without any incantations. As Mura marveled at the power his master had, Naraka touched Behemoth’s arms which restored them to normal.

“You should watch where you swing those arms of yours. It’d be quite unfortunate if they happened to tear right off that big body,” Naraka said with an innocent smile; his purple eyes staring into Behemoth’s.

Behemoth started sweating and grunted in agreement before picking Suzu off the ground and storming out of the room.

“M-Master Naraka, can I have your autograph?!” Mammon said, having already wiped her eyes and was now back to her usual self.

Naraka nodded and signed a piece of paper Mammon gave him.

“Thank you so much! I’ll treasure this forever! God, I want your babies inside me—”

Naraka laughed awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head. Mura and Lilith just stared.

“Look at him, he loves the attention…” they both said in disappointed unison.

“Now then, Mura! I actually have another reason why I came to see you. Meet me at my quarters right away, I have something to discuss with you.”

“Oh, of course! What do you need, master?” Mura said in surprise.

Naraka smiled, his eyes having a mischievous gleam in them.

“Why, we’re going to unlock your Tamashi Genkai.”