Why is this apartment so rundown? It also smells kinda malodorous. How does someone who lives here even have money to ask for a job? For all I know the client could be the deceit. Who’s the old guy standing at that door? I get closer to the old man and see that the apartment number is the same as the location told me to go.

“Are you the client from the PDE website?”

“Why yes I am. I take it that you have already read my reason of suspicion?”

“Yeah…”

“Why don’t you come inside and have something to drink? Being an executioner is very tiring.”

I nod and enter his apartment. I’m suddenly hit with one of the most putrid smells imaginable and instantly cover my nose. 

“Do you not smell that!?”

The old man grins, “Why yes I do. It’s quite pleasant is it not?”

I let out an awkward giggle, “Well people certainly have preferences.”

He leads me into a room with a simple tatami mat and wooded walls. There were two teacups placed adjacent from each other on the mat. I sit down behind one of the teacups and he sat behind the other. I take a sip of the tea and the man starts to speak.

“Seems like fate works in the favor of many. This opportunity could have never happened.”

“And I’m glad fated led me to you! Helping the citizens of Kyoto is my top priority!”

The man smiles gently and starts digging in one of his pockets. I stare at his pocket in case of a weapon. Even if it was, he wouldn’t be able to kill me regardless of anything he did. He surprisingly isn’t a deceit, though the smell is making me suspicious of many things. 

The man pulls out a picture of a woman. My eyes widen and I try to summon my weapon, but nothing appeared. I start sweating. This can’t be happening. I can’t help but panic. No. How?

“Your mother has been waiting to get a chance to speak with you again. I see that the picture of her has triggered you quite a lot.”

“H-how!? How do you know her!? W-what are you!? I can’t kill you! I want to kill you!”

“Calm down, boy. I’m only here to relay a message from her. Does that not interest you? Slow down your breathing and stop crying before you end up suffocating.”

I slowly catch my breath and sit down. My breathing is still heavy and my panic wasn’t washing away.

 “Just hurry up okay!” 

The man clears his throat and turns the picture around. 

“Hey, Nex. You probably remember me. You can’t forget the mother that has done so much wrong to you and for that, I am sorry. Your life has gotten better ever since I disappeared. I also see that you have followed your mother’s orders. You met  the target but you haven’t killed him. It’s pathetic. Maybe stabbing you in the chest will be enough to make you cooperate like the good boy that you are.  When I tell you to kill, you KILL. I was the strongest executioner and now you have to carry that on! I want you to eliminate your competition and destroy what has ruined the lives of many! If you kill him, you will save the WORLD! THE UNIVERSE! Now make mommy proud, okay? If not? I’ll be there to do it for you.”

I clench my fist. “Tell my mom— no, tell Izumi that I deny her orders. My goal is to be the person that everyone can look up to and leave a lasting impression on. I don’t want to be a murderer. I don’t want to do things that have nothing to do with me. I don’t want to be controlled anymore! If she wants to do it, then she can! I’ll kill that bitch before she can even touch him!”

“It seems that there is no changing your objectives. I accept your defiance, though it may lead to your demise. Open that closet behind you. You must see it before you leave.”

———————————————

Me and Mya tied up the humanoid onto a chair to interrogate him. We had a hard time keeping him silent and he wouldn’t sit still. 

“I’LL HAVE YOU KIDS KNOW THAT I AM THE EMBODIMENT OF THE REAPER!”

“Save your voice for whenever we burn you alive!”

“Calm down, Mya. I’m sure this thing is a part of you. It came out your black arm right?”

“Well… yeah… you’re right…”

I get close to him before interrogating him. “So who exactly are you? What’s your connection to Mya?”

“YOU THINK SOMEONE LIKE YOU IS WORTHY OF SUCH CONFIDENTIAL INFO?” 

I go behind the chair and pulled the rope up to his throat. “I could kill you here if you’d like. I mean, I wouldn’t want to hurt someone I just met…”

He lets out a sigh of frustration. “I’m the Reaper. I latched onto that damn girl since her birth. I thought that she would be a fine vessel, so I lended her my powers. That’s all you’re getting out of me!”

“You were alive and in my arm? For 17 years?” Mya’s face starts to turn red. “What have you exactly seen?”

I make my way to the door of her room to exit and exchange a few last words to Reaper. “This is my cue to leave! Have fun in there!”

“LISTEN I DIDN’T SEE ANYTHING! WAIT! Waaaaiii…” His cries of help slowly muffled as I close the door. 

I guess I should take up one of the offers from the site now that I’ve got time on my hands. I wonder how Nex is doing as of now. I pull out my phone to go onto the website and look at some of the request. One request in particular stood put to me. 

Execution Request #4: Suspicious Friend

Client: Kuro Yami 

Me and my friend have had kept it a secret for a long time now, but I think that it should now come to light. They have been a deceit and I have accepted this fact for many years, but now it’s become too much of a burden. I will disclose more details in person.

Pay: ¥10,000 

This request is very different from the others. All of the other request would simply give out their suspicions of someone they know being a deceit. This person straight up knows that this person is a deceit and they are willing to have them executed. They also knew this for many years apparently…

I throw on my uniform as soon as I accept the request. My body suddenly hits the floor along with a loud thud once I fully put on the uniform. What is this thing made out of!? I struggle to bring myself off the ground. It felt like I was being pinned down by millions of people at once. No, not even that was an accurate description of the weight that was holding me down.

I activate my shinkuro and all the weight suddenly disappears. What the hell was that? What did she put in this thing? How was Nex able to carry all this weight? I get back on my feet. A surge of energy flows throughout my body and the same thing happened as it did with Nex whenever he activated his shinkuro.

“New ability is ‘Weapon Master’. Nice one.”

I jump at the sudden blurting of Mythgoris. I start to speak out loud with curiosity. 

“You’re able to read out my abilities out?”

Mythgoris’ voice becomes soft. “Why of course I can! I do live in your subconscious, which is also where your abilities are stored.  Even the ones that you haven’t even awakened…”

“I guess you are useful for something at least.”

“If it weren’t for me then Kyoto would be in shambles as of now!”

I scoff at her irritation. Weapon Master Daitan. That title has a ring to it. I assume that I’m able to wield any weapon and use it without any sort of practice. I guess we’ll see eventually. 

I arrive at Gojō Bridge. Gojō has been pretty vacant due to the recent events of the Rei’s mass destruction. Having to get through all of the reconstruction was a huge pain, especially with the all the dust and the smell. The client isn’t here yet as of now. Maybe I shouldn’t have came so early. 

I stare into the flowing river below the bridge, looking into blurry my reflection. 

“Mythgoris.”

“Hm?”

“Are you able to check on other people for me?”

“Of course I am! Who are you wanting to observe?”

“Nex Orphus.”

“About that…” Mythgoris’ voice becomes dejected. “I can only observe people who have shinkuro circuits.” 

“Does he not have shinkuro circuits? Is he some superhuman or something?” If thats the case, then it makes no sense that he was able to wear Carnifex. Maybe I’m overthinking things. “Um, alright then. Forget it.” 

“You seem to be in thought about something. Is there something wrong?”

I turn my head to find the voice and beside me was a charming girl with long black hair and tired eyes that made her look even more beautiful. 

“How long have you been here? Do you know where you are right now?”

“Don’t try to act all tough. I’m the client that hired you anyways and the only actual people here are the people working on construction.”

Damn! She shut me down hell of fast. She’s not wrong however, we are the only people here who aren’t working on construction. I stare into her eyes thinking of a snarky reply, but I ended up only thinking about her eyes. She had alluring black eyes that drew me in. I couldn’t stop looking. I really couldn’t. 

“Are you there bud? Helloooo!” She starts waving her hand in front of my face to get her attention. I finally come back to my senses.

“I’m sorry, just got lost in thought again…”

“You were staring into my soul like you wanted to kill me or something. I almost ran away and got a refund. Speaking of which, are you really the executioner or is that just a flashy cosplay you have on?”

“I am certainly the executioner you hired! I apologize sincerely, this is kind of my first time doing this and I’m bad with socializing!” 

She lets out a deep sigh before she starts to talk about the job. “You read my request correctly. There was actually no more to it really. I just wanted to confirm you were authentic and let’s get to confirming that now.” She takes her jacket off and puts her hands on her hips. “Use your shinkuro element on me.”

“Huh!? I’m sure there are different ways we can confirm thi—“

“It won’t hurt me. Just do it. A real executioner would be willing to do anything to prove that they are authentic.”

Damn it, why is she like this? 

“Get ready, alright?” I take a deep breath before pointing my finger at her leg and start channeling electricity. Here it goes. I shoot a fast electric wave at her leg, but it didn’t damage her leg. It damaged her chest. She starts to laugh almost manically before speaking again.

“You sure do need to work on a lot of things. You hesitated, shot for my leg, and you held back. You should have tried to kill me, but you’re too much of a coward to do so.”

I start to shake and slowly move towards her. “Just… what are you?”

She grins at me before getting some blood off of her chest and putting it to my head. “You’ll figure that out on your own one day, Daitan Yukimura. Fate will lead you down the path it carves out for you.” She puts her jacket back on and starts walking off. She turns and signals me to follow her.