"So this is earth... let´s see whether I´ll keep Gid in check or just let him destroy earth." A boy clad in a black trench coat and with his head covered by a black hood mumbles as he steps out of a small space ship, apparently it was only made for a one-way trip as it broke upon landing.
"I guess I´ll find a contact first, Lunatique or Mikado... or maybe it would be better to observe the princesses directly? So many questions, not enough time, better get to work." The boy continues to mumble while his body slowly fades into the darkness.
"I guess I ended up at Mikado´s home." The boy mumbles as he stops in front of a door leading down into a basement, the door is marked with a symbol indicating it as a clinic.
He walks up to the door and knocks on it, the door is opened only moments later by a young girl with long dark blue hair and dark-blue eyes.
"Welcome to Dr. Mikado´s clinic." She says with a smile and invites the boy inside.
The boy quickly enters and sits down in a chair placed in the corner of the room.
A while later the girl reappears in the room with a tray holding a cup of tea and a small plate with snacks.
"Would you like to have some?" The girl asks as she walks up to the boy.
"...Name?" The boy finally asks a while after the girl sopped in front of him.
"Hmm, did you say something?" The girl asks him while tilting her head to the side.
"Name." The boy asks again, though louder than the first time.
"Oh right, my name is Oshizu Murasame, I work as Dr. Mikado´s assistant." The girl introduces herself.
"I see." The boy mumbles to himself before he takes the cup of tea from the tray Oshizu is still holding.
He takes a small sip from it before he nods his head and continues to drink the tea, though he never takes his hood off.
A while later, after the boy finished the third cup of tea, Mikado steps out from her treatment room and sees a patient off before she turns to the waiting room where she spots Oshizu talking to a figure hidden in the shadows of the corner.
"Oshizu can you send the next patient please." Mikado says as she walks back into the treatment room.
A few seconds later Oshizu enters the room followed by the hooded boy, at the time Mikado sits with her back turn to the door.
"Alright, so what kind of problem do you have?" Mikado asks while she continues to take notes with her back turned to the boy.
"I need some accommodation." The boy answers void of any emotion, however Mikado immediately spins around in her chair and stares at him.
"What are YOU doing here?" She asks him angrily, her face covered in a look of hatred.
"Dr. Mikado you know him?" Oshizu asks her in surprise.
"KNOW him? That guy is famous. Black Mist, he is one of the top mercenaries in this universe known to have never failed a mission." Mikado shouts the words in shock.
"Not that good. Only doing what I´m told." The boy mumbles clinically, but Mikado just continues to glare at him with suspicion.
"I´ll leave. Thanks for the tea it tasted... warm." The boy excuses himself with a mumble and leaves the room, on his way out of the clinic he passes a blonde woman with green eyes.
"Lunatique." The boy mumbles before he disappears down the street.
"Did anything happen while I was gone?" Tearju asks Mikado after she walks into the treatment room.
"No, nothing interesting happened." Mikado answers her calmly.
"So since we´re finished for today how about we go out to eat something?" She offers immediately afterward.
"That sounds good, I was just getting hungry." Tearju instantly agrees.
"Yeah, that´s fine." Oshizu answers absentmindedly still thinking about Mikado´s reaction to the boy.
After cleaning the treatment room the three females leave the clinic and continue to walk until they reach a very shady part of the town.
"Um, Dr. Mikado, are you sure that nothing will happen to us while we´re here?" Oshizu asks Mikado as she clings to her arm.
"Yes, we´ll be fine." Mikado assures her.
"Are you sure?" Tearju now asks her while clinging to Mikado´s other arm.
"Yes I am sure." Mikado assures her as well.
Suddenly they hear an eery sound from a deserted alley a few steps away from them.
"What was that?" Tearju suddenly cries while trembling fearfully.
"That alley is known as a shortcut back to the residential area, but a lot of shady figures gather in there. We´ll be fine if we stay out of there." Mikado answers her.
Just when the group is about to pass by the alley Oshizu looks inside and spots a young girl with brown hair that is surrounded by a number of huge, deformed beings.
"Dr. Mikado there´s someone inside there, we need to help her." Oshizu quickly tells her and dashes into the alley.
"No, stop don´t go in there!" Mikado yells after her, but at the same time she notices Tearju enter the alley as well.
"Get out of there!" Mikado yells at them and runs into the alley as well.
"Hey you leave that girl alone!" Tearju yells at the giants, but immediately another group of them appears and blocks the way where the women just came from.
Suddenly the small girl steps forward and looks at the three before she shakes her head and points at them, as she does the giants move closer to them, their faces showing disgusting grins.
"Stop." A voice suddenly enters the alley but it is immediately drowned out by the wind.
"Stop." Again the voice appears, but it is once again drowned out by a giant´s growl.
"Stop." The voice says a third time, still in the same volume, but even if the giants noticed the voice they just decided to ignore it.
"Stop NOW." The voice appears again, and even though the words were said the same way they were before they carried a lot more power, yet the giants still ignore it.
"STOP." the voice repeats itself again, this time completely void of any emotion yet the giants turn to look at the source of the voice, but upon finding nothing they turn back to their targets.
Suddenly a hooded figure walks into the alley and stop directly in front of the giants.
"I told you to stop didn´t I." The figure asks calmly, however the anger contained in the words could be felt clearly and this time some of the giants turn to look at the figure, yet most of them still continue to advance on the three women they caught.
Then just as one of the giants was about to extend its hand to the women a large explosion of power happened, with the hooded figure at its center. The hood of the figure was now gone showing the boys blood-red eyes and silver hair to the world. The trench coat he was wearing is now being blown back like a cape by an invisible power and exposes the figure´s black woolen pants and a skin-tight long-sleeved black shirt hugging the figure´s body, there´s also a long scaled tail sprouting from his back.
"It´s the boy from before!" Oshizu suddenly shouts just as all of the giants focus on the boy and even the small girl from before interestedly watches him from the back of the alley.
"Leave now, if you do I will not harm you." The boy says with a voice completely different from before, instead of a quiet and calm tone his voice booms with a power and authority that would leave an average opponent paralyzed in fear, however the giants are not average opponents, they are way more stupid, so they decide to attack the boy.
As the first giant approaches the boy just sidesteps the punch thrown at him and lands a punch to the giant´s side, breaking a few ribs with the force.
The next giant tries to kick him, but the boy jumps over the giant´s leg and lands on the giant´s elbow, from there he kicks the giant´s head and knocks it out.
Suddenly two more giant´s appear behind the boy and try to punch him, but the boy disappears in a trail of black mist and reappears behind the enemy ranks; directly in front of the small girl.
"Call your toys back." The boy orders the girl with a voice full of authority.
"Y-yes." The girl stutters and with a wave of her hand the giants disappear into thin air.
"Now get out of here and don´t ever return." He tells her with the same voice as before and the girl immediately turns tail and flees into the darkness.
"Black Mist, is that really you?" Tearju suddenly asks the boy with a slightly shaky voice.
"Yes, I have been ordered to come here." The boy says in a soft voice while he turns around and his hair returns to a dark-blonde almost black color and his eyes turn a piercing blue, his coat also drops down again, only the hood does not return.
"Tearju-sensei, you know him as well?" Oshizu asks her in confusion.
"Yes, his name is Arikarion, though the others called him Black Mist, I requested his assistance when I fled from the dark organization´s headquarter after they held me prisoner in there. If it weren´t for him and his abilities I would have never managed to even leave the room." Tearju explains.
"You make it sound like I´m a kind of monster." Arikarion suddenly says with a mock-pout.
"I didn´t say that, did I?" Tearju asks him with a smile and cocks her head to the side.
"You certainly didn´t." He answers her with a smile before his face turns serious again and he turns to Mikado.
"I´m no different from other beings. I travel to find a place where I belong and I fight to protect myself and those dear to me, that´s the way I was raised and that´s the way I am. I have the power to change something, so I should use it to change things for the better, that´s what I believe."
"Even if you say that, it doesn´t change the fact that you work for everyone as long as they hire you." Mikado shrugs him off and turns around before she leaves the alley.
"Neither does it excuse that mistake." He mumbles in a low voice.
"Is that really true?" Tearju asks him carefully.
"Yes, I do. If someone can give me a reason why I should work with them then I do it." Arikarion answers her bluntly.
"Why?" She asks him in a gentle voice.
"It´s just the way I live." He answers her coldly.
"But you won´t continue doing it right?" Oshizu asks him with a smile on her face.
"I can´t promise that."
"So in the end you turn out to be something like a good guy after all." Mikado suddenly says.
"I´m not a good guy at all, nor am I one of the bad ones." Arikarion answers her cryptically.
"Well I guess you´re more open than Yami." Mikado suddenly tells him with a smile.
"Yami? Who´s that?"
"Golden Darkness. The princess of Deviluke gave her that name, she´s been using it ever since."
"Yami, huh? But why is she using a name given to her by the princess of Deviluke? Didn´t you give her a name Tearju?" Arikarion suddenly asks in confusion.
"I did. I called her Eve, but she stopped using it. Maybe it´s because of her past, she´s also avoiding me as much as she can." Tearju explains to him.
"Eve, yeah I remember that name. You spoke about her a lot. I was quiet envious of her you know, because you kept paying attention to her like a family would." Arikarion says nostalgically.
"I was a small kid at the time don´t look at me like that." He suddenly adds dryly after noticing the weird stares he received of the women.
"So how much older than Yami are you?" Oshizu asks him.
"How many days is a year on earth?"
"365 days is a year and every fourth year it´s 366 days." Oshizu explains to him.
"So 365 days and six hours, that would make me... eighteen years old and two years older than her, so Yami would be sixteen, I guess." Arikarion answers after some calculations.
"Wait, Yami is only sixteen? I would have thought she was older, she acts more mature." Oshizu says in shock.
"I guess you would be forced to grow up fast if you´re alone in the universe and an assassin as well." Mikado ponders.
"Then what kind of ability do you have? Is it something incredible like Yami´s transform ability?" Oshizu asks him.
"It´s not like I have any outstanding abilities like that, I´m fast and I know how to use weapons." Arikarion answers calmly
"Alright, that´s enough of that. How about we get out of here now. We did come here to eat, Black Mist can join us, he did save us after all." Mikado suddenly says and leaves the alley.
"You heard her, let´s go." Oshizu suddenly says as she perks up and pulls Arikarion by the arm, Tearju follows them with a smile on her face.
A few minutes later they enter a small ramen shop.
"So this is a place where you eat here on earth, it´s small but it looks comfortable." Arikarion comments after they sat down.
"This is a small shop after all, but the food here is great." Mikado tells him.
"Then what kind of food do they serve here?"
"You´ve never been to a ramen shop?" Oshizu asks him.
"This is the first time I´ll eat food from earth." Arikarion answers her with a grin.
"Then you should try the special ramen deluxe, there´s everything inside that can somehow be put into a pot of ramen." Mikado tells him excitedly.
"Um, I think I´d prefer to go with something normal. So what would be normal?"
"I guess ramen with pork in it would be pretty normal." Tearju suggests uncertainly.
"Ramen with pork? That sounds kinda interesting." Arikarion mumbles when a waitress walks up to their table.
"Good afternoon, are you ready to order?" She asks while handling a notepad and pen in her hands.
"Yes, I´d like a ramen with pork please." Arikarion orders first.
"I´ll have a vegetable ramen." Tearju orders next.
"I´ll also have a vegetable ramen." Oshizu orders.
Finally Mikado looks at the waitress with a big grin "Special ramen deluxe."
"Alright, your food will be done in a short while. Is there anything you want to drink while you wait?" The waitress asks with a smile.
"I´ll have a beer." Mikado answers immediately.
"Water for me." Tearju orders next.
"I´d like a coke please." Oshizu says politely.
"Yes, I´ll have one of these coke, as well." Arikarion answers her with a smile.
"Okay, I´ll be back in a moment." The waitress says politely and walks over to the counter before she hands the orders to the chef.
"So what is this coke you ordered?" Arikarion asks Oshizu.
"It´s a drink from earth, it´s pretty good." Oshizu answers him cheerfully.
"Hmm, alright." He says with a shrug of his shoulders just as the waitress returns with their drinks.
"Here you go." She says while she places the drinks on the table before she leaves again.
"So this is coke." Arikarion mumbles as he inspects the brown liquid in his glass.
"So why did you decide to order coke if you don´t even know what it is?" Mikado suddenly asks him.
"It sounded kinda interesting." He answers her indifferently.
"I see."
After that exchange Arikarion grabs his glass and takes a sip.
"Mm, this is great." He says with wide eyes.
"Well I guess coke is pretty tasty, but I don´t think it´s that great." Oshizu comments as she watches Arikarion.
"No, compared to the stuff I drank while I was in space this is just delicious, especially the sweetness." Arikarion tells her excitedly.
"Here is your ramen." The waitress suddenly says from next to their table and places four bowls of ramen on the table.
"I put in some extra pork for you." She suddenly whispers to Arikarion and winks at him with a smile before she leaves again.
"Is there any meaning to that?" Arikarion asks the three females with a confused look.
"He did look as if he had more emotions than Yami, but I guess he was just acting the part." Mikado mutters with a grumble before she looks at Arikarion.
"Here on earth it´s called `flirting´ it means that she has taken a liking to you and wants your attention." She explains.
"Then why would she give me food? It would be more conclusive if she were to tell me that she wants my attention." Arikarion asks still in confusion.
"Humans aren´t that direct about what they want, instead they drop hints you have to decipher."
"So it´s a kind of test? That would mean I lost, correct?"
"It doesn´t work like that. How about you get yourself some books from the library and read up on it." Mikado finally finishes their discussion and starts eating her ramen.
Arikarion also starts on his ramen, after tasting the first mouthful his eyes widen.
"Wow, this is delicious. Does everything here on earth taste this good?"
"Well I guess it depends on your personal taste and on the skill of the one who cooked it." Tearju answers him.
"That must mean that the person who made this has an incredible skill. I guess you can´t underestimate a race just because it lives on a backwater planet." Arikarion mutters while he continues eating his ramen.
About five minutes later he has already finished it as well as a second coke he ordered.
"Don´t worry about the money, I will pay for my own share." Arikarion suddenly says.
"Oh you have yen with you?" Mikado asks in surprise.
"Yen? They don´t accept Galactic Credits?"
"No. You can´t pay with Galactic Credits on earth."
"Could you change my credits for yen? I´ll probably need quite a lot in the next few days." Arikarion asks Mikado.
"I guess, but only because Tearju trust you not to do anything stupid." Mikado agrees with a sigh.
"Thank you very much, you can keep some of the credits as a fee if you want."
"So aside from food and money, do you have a place to stay?" Tearju asks him.
"No, not yet. My spaceship was destroyed when I entered this planet and I have yet to find an accommodation." He answers her.
"Then-" "No, he won´t stay at my clinic." Tearju starts, but Mikado cuts her off before she even gets to finish her offer.
"Then how about Yuuki Rito´s house?" Oshizu suddenly offers.
"Well I guess we could try asking him." Mikado agrees and the group leaves the shop after paying.
"So if you follow this map you´ll find Yuuki Rito´s house. If you explain your situation he might let you stay until you find a place for yourself." Tearju explains to Arikarion as she hands him a piece of paper with a map drawn on it.
"Thank you for your help. I will make sure to repay you." Arikarion says with a final wave and leaves in the direction the map shows.
Half an hour later he arrives in front of a house matching the description on the map.