The stoned-face individual awkwardly scratched his neck at his actions before asking, “Well, can I ask you something?”

“If that’ll keep your mind here, then sure,” grumbled Seodra.

“What was that creature that crashed into the market, where does it come from?”

“Something that–,” Seodra stopped for a moment to check and make sure Kokoro was still listening. Her glare pressured the silver ghoul to continue eating. After receiving a gesture that he was actively engaging with her, she continued to explain, “What you saw in the market. That was a demon, and they came straight from the realms of hell.”

“Hell!? How are demons from hell roaming around in Purgatory? Shouldn’t there be some force to prevent that or something?”

“Remember Purgatory’s place in mythology, it’s not the most accurate but it’s a decent guideline to start with. Purgatory is the middle ground between a fate of damnation or bliss, while it’s usually written to be metaphorically placed between those two ends of a pendulum, it’s a lot more literal.”

“You mean, below our feet–”

“Underneath the ground we’re standing on is the realm of Hell.”

Her last words echoed in Kokoro’s mind like a boom in a cave. Hell, despite all different iterations and interpretations of what hell is, there’s no question that the common consensus is that hell is a dreadful place to be in.

“Just being near it and demons can still jump out to attack the public,” thought Kokoro, staring at his bowl, “What kind of hectic place did I end up in? Demons that can just drop in on public places? I thought the point of not going to hell is to avoid such creatures. Then again, if this is supposed to be the compromised place to end up, like a scale weight on both sides will be placed.“

His eyes leisurely trailed to the side to see Seodra gawking at him, making him sigh, “Oh give me a break, I’m allowed an inner monolog after that tidbit.”

“You should start a memoir since you like monologuing to yourself so much!”

“I did have a memoir when I was alive. Well, more like I had stacks of paper containing my hodgepodge rambles put together in a binder I kept in my drawers.”

A chuckle came out from the ruby-haired woman, trying to talk through her excitement, “That’s a good one, can’t believe how spot-on that is! You know, I’m a bit of an academic myself. If you start one again, let’s trade notes sometimes.”

The only response the silver ghoul gave was a low grunt, “...I’ll consider.”

“Ah come on, don’t be shy,” Seodra tells him, patting his shoulder, “Whatever you’ve written can’t be that bad.”

Silence fell over Kokoro, his mind ran by the numerous times he wrote some unadulterated opinions and theories involving some of his clients. Those were logged with the expressed purpose of never seeing the light of day, EVER. Prompting him to reply, “It’s just… extremely rough to read. A waste of time I stupidly committed to.”

“Everyone has embarrassing notes they’ve jolted down.”

“Yeah…” was all Kokoro could respond with, hoping to quickly change the topic by asking, “What did you work as anyway?”

Before an answer was given, a sudden arrival into the restaurant caught their attention.

“Oh thank the lord, you’re here,” stated Mary, the angel Kokoro first met when he awoke in Purgatory, and who he ditched soon after getting his clothes on. Her wings were arc down as she was panting heavily, speaking between gasps, “I was looking all over for you?”

“Did you run here?” Seodra asked, eyeing the angel’s choice of wearing heels. While fashionable to gawk at, the Irish woman’s ankles were aching just thinking about what this woman experienced.

Mary answered her with a nod.

“Why didn’t you fly, you have wings,” Kokoro pointed out, nonchalantly continuing to eat.

“I wanted to keep my relatability,” gasped Mary, taking deep breaths to recompose herself before continuing, “And not be overwhelming by overexposing you to the supernatural.”

Wiping his mouth and turning to the angel, Kokoro responded, “I’m from the age where stories of regular people ending up in worlds filled with magic and other mystical concepts are a dime a dozen. After all the stories I’ve read, seeing an angel fly wouldn’t be that mind-blowing.”

Mulling over his words, Mary mumbles, “I guess you’re right.”

“Plus he got attacked by a demon so that bandaid got ripped off pretty quickly,” casually added Seodra.

“WHAT!?” exclaimed Mary, nearly falling over herself.

“I wouldn’t say attacked, more like encountered one when it crashed into the marketplace we were visiting,” corrected Kokoro.

Panicking, Mary was reinvigorated with energy as she rushed over to Kokoro, placing her soft hand over the silver ghoul’s face and torso asking, “Are you ok!? Did you get hurt!? Is there anywhere you’re feeling pain!? Are you feeling well!? I hope you didn’t encounter anything too scary!”

Kokoro simply blinked, “I’m fine.”

Thankfully that response, along with his stone-face glare, was enough to get Mary to stop checking him, “I-i see.”

After clearing her throat, the angel continued, “Well, I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”

“Obviously,” Kokoro thought but kept it to himself.

“If you’ll follow me, I’ll gladly answer them,” suggested the angel, giving a formal gesture leading to outside the restaurant, “And maybe along the way we can continue our previous conversation.”

“No.”

“What?”

“I’m good,” the silver ghoul responded, turning back to the table to finish his meal.

“But- uhh, I– you sure?”

“Yup.”

“There are no questions you want to be answered?”

“Oh there is, I just don’t want what’s attached to it.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask!”

Curious, Seodra asked, “I thought you had to leave him early?”

“Is that what he told you!?” the angel exclaimed, snapping her head toward the silver ghoul to give him a crabby expression.

“Oh yeah, I did say that,” was the nonchalant answer Koko gave, “Well, it was more like I jumped out a window when she was talking.”

“Right as I was able to pitch the opportunity of an eternity!” Mary added, sounding irritated but more hurt that a highly anticipated opportunity was snatched away from her on a whim, “And I was so nice to him too!”

Seodra snickered, “That’s rough. How can you be so mean to Mary, Shikata? She’s pretty cool.”

“I didn’t feel like listening to a job pitch when I just woke up,” Kokoro snapped back, “Who wants to hear about working after dying?”

“...Huh, can’t argue against that. Yeah, I’ll run away too,” the Irish states, stretching her arms, “You two mind if we take this outside? I wanna stretch my legs out after a meal?”

“But… I just got here,” murmured Mary, after how far and long she had been running, she could use a seat.

Unfortunately for the kind angel, she was outvoted and the three of them ended up outside the restaurant. It gave Kokoro one more chance to admire the exterior as he questions the logic behind putting a noodle restaurant on top of a giant plant vine bigger than the building itself.

“What was this place called again?” Kokoro asked, making a mental note of how they got here again. Though with the giant vine it’s on top of, he thought it might not be that hard to miss.

“Noodles From The East,” answered Seodra, enjoying the fresh cool breeze of air. Looking up at the sky, she noticed how late it has gotten since the sky had darkened to a cold purplish-blue; one of the few times during the day where the soul residing in purgatory can look up and feel like they’re alive back on earth. After taking in the dazzling view, Seodra turns to Kokoro to say, “Apparently it’s some kind of pun on a- oh for fuck sake!” 

The ruby-haired woman let out a grunt of annoyance when she saw her silver-haired guest once again staring off in the distance as if he wasn’t listening.

It was by pure coincidence that Kokoro turned his head to see a very angry Irish woman glaring at him like she wanted to wring his neck.

“What?” he asked, confused by the daggers being thrown by her fierce shining eyes.

Sighing, Seodra turned to Mary, shaking her head before stating, “Can’t imagine what you want with him, it just seems like a lot more trouble along with the rest of Purgatory.”

“Oh don’t worry, he may not look promising but he’s what I need for the plans I have in mind.”

“I doubt it’ll do too much, not much can shake things up here; Purgatory got its reputation for a reason. But hey, congrats on your passion project.”

“Trust me, his talent is the component I need. I just need to convince him to use it!”

“Good luck, he’s not even paying attention even now,” Seodra pointed out, gesturing to Kokoro who was again staring off in the distance.

Still not facing the girls or actively engaging in their conversation, Kokoro asked, “How deeply populated is this area? Like, does anyone live around here?”

“I bet he didn’t even hear what we say,” commented Seodra, placing her hands on her hips.

Not looking back, Kokoro replied, “I did, it’s nothing new I haven’t heard before so I opted not to care.”

“Not to interrupt but should we be heading over,” Mary suggested, trying to lure the group into following her.

Taking a final look into the surrounding vines, Kokoro meanderingly started walking behind Mary saying, “Alright, hopefully it’s not too far of a- wait a minute.”

Sending his steely-eyed look upon the angel, whose guilt riddled her body down to her wings, he scolds her, “I haven’t agreed to anything yet. How are you an angel yet so deviously sneaky?”

Pressing her fingertips together, she mumbled, “My goal wasn’t to be deceitful, just to guide you toward a great idea.”

“Then offer what may entice me enough to hear you out like a normal person, or angel.”

“I did but you rejected it!”

“Then step up your game and bring something better.”

“Like what, you’re hard to read at times.”

“Ok, but how is that my problem though?”

“You could at least throw me a bone,” the angel moped, finding a respectable offer for such a detached person was a far cry from what she was expecting their whole meeting to go, “Usually the new arrivals I greet are more cooperative. Well, guess I’m getting what I wanted. Now how do I nab him?”

As the angel pondered over it, Seodra looked back to the restaurant with an estranged look before slapping her forehead and stating, “Oh shoot, I forgot to give something to Zhi for the meal?”

“I thought you said it was on the house?” questioned Kokoro.

“It was but this is more of a friendly thing, don’t worry about it,” Seodra told him while searching on the ground for something.

“What are you looking for?”

“A couple of- ah come on, I know I saw some here when we entered; where are they,” she mumbled to herself.

The other two would watch helplessly as neither knew what she intended to get until finally, the redhead rose back to her feet with a couple of small stones in her palm. After clasping her fist shut, she brought her hands close to her lips as she mumbled words Kokoro wouldn’t hear. It was a magical reveal when Seodra opened her hand and showed a single sparkling gem.

Seeing Kokoro’s longing glare at the supernatural occurrence, Mary’s eye lit up as bright as the jewel did as her mind became enlightened with an idea, “That’s it!”

Flying swiftly toward Kokoro, the angel made her offer.

“You’ll listen to my idea and I’ll teach you how she’s doing that,” Mary exclaimed, pointing to Kokoro’s chest, “I’ll rev up your soul and help you learn how we fight against the demons from hell.”