Chapter Nine: Seeking a Place to Live

After Pheonix picked everyone up, they arrived at a resturant. They all sat down and took a seat, except for Coslotus. As he went to leave, Serenity says, "Where're you going?"

Coslotus just says one word, "Out..."

He then leaves the group. After Coslotus is gone, everyone looks to Raven. Hikari then says, "Okay, what's the plan?"

Raven then looks at everyone. She puts her hands on the table and crosses her fingers together. She then says, "How would you guys feel if we all lived together?"

Serenity smiles, "That'd be.....that'd be awesome!"

Hikari then says, "YEAH! It would!!"

Zero thinks for a moment before saying, "I guess....I guess it'd be okay. It'd probrably be epic!"

Pheonix nods, "Yeah. I'd LOVE that!"

Raven smiles a little, "Good. Because we're gonna go find a place."

Serenity then says, "How? I don't think any of us have the money."

Raven smirks, "That's where we come in. We're gonna make some!"

Pheonix then asks, "How?"

Raven then says, "We're all gonna go out and find jobs. We save up and then go get us a place."

Hikari smiles, "This is gonna be fun!"

Raven chuckles. She then says, "Okay, first of all, who here has a job already?"

Pheonix and Sith then raise their hands. Raven sighs, "Is that it?"

Raven looks to Zero, "You don't have a job?"

Zero shakes his head, "Not since my Sensei died."

Raven then looks to Hikari, "Not even you??"

Hikari laughs, "Nope! My money is given to me! I don't have to work!"

Everyone's eyes widened. Zero then says, "H-how is that possible? Who gives you money?"

Hikari smiles, "I got an inheritance from the very witch that taught me."

Serenity then asks, "Who was that?"

Hikari looks to her, "Her name was Agatha Grimwood. She taught me and died of old age. She left me a will saying I get all of her possessions and money."

Pheonix's eyes widened, "Agatha Grimwood?? The one that was also known as the Lady of Woes?"

Hikari nods with a smile, "Yup! That's her!"

Pheonix's eyes widened even more, "You were taught by her??"

Hikari nods, "Yup!"

Pheonix then says, "S-she's one of the top four most powerful witches in the world!!!"

Hikari nods, "Yeah I know! Isn't that cool?!"

Serenity then says, "H-how did you meet her?"

Everyone then looks to Hikari. She then says, "Well.....after the Slavery Period....I wondered on my own. I didn't have any money....so I had no food. I was near starvation when she found me. I had fallen on her property when I became ill from dehidration. She came running out with a broomstick, yelling at me to get off her lawn. She came chasing after me after I ran. I hid from her and hoped to never see her again. She was scary. Then the next day, she was grocery shopping and found me on the way home. When she got a good look at me and saw how ill I was, she invited me to her home. She gave me food and water and apologized for chasing me. After that, she did my reading and sensed a great aura about me."

Hikari then took a breath, "She then said I was gonna become her apprentice. She taught me all sorts of stuff and she even let me live with her. After I became a full-fledged witch, she told me that a raven lady was gonna find me. She told me when that happens, guide her into battle and set things right. She died of old age a week later....."

Serenity's eye deepen with concern, "Aw....I'm so sorry. That must've been hard for you."

Hikari nods, "Yeah. But you get over it after a while."

Raven's eyes widened, "That's the second person that previsioned me coming to you guys!!!"

Hikari then says, "What do you mean?"

Raven then points to Zero, "His Sensei said that I was gonna find him before he died."

Hikari eyes widened, "Weird!"

Sith sighs, "We're getting off topic. We're here to discuss about a place to live, not to hear about everyone's life story!"

Raven sighed, "Yeah.....off topic here. Heh heh. Okay Hikari.....how much did Agatha exactly leave you?"

Hikari thinks, "Um.......not including money for food each week....I'd say around......around $30, 000?"

Everyone's eyes widened. Zero says, "Holy crap! You're practically rich!"

Hikari nods, "Yeah, it's true!"

Raven then says, "Do you think we can use that money to get a place?"

Hikari nods, "I don't see why not."

Pheonix then says, "Wait a minute. We need to find a place we want first! We can't assume anything yet."

Serenity then says, "What do you suggest we do?"

Pheonix then says, "Okay.....we need to actually go out and look."

Raven then says, "Then why are we sitting here for then? Let's go!"

Pheonix then drives them all to a Real Estate building. They all go inside. Raven then goes to the front counter. The clerk was sitting there talking on the phone. From her looks, she looked like a demon passing off as human. She wore a red outfit with black reading glasses and blonde hair. They only thing that stood out the most was her glowing red eyes. She finally hangs up the phone when she notices Raven, "Can I help you?"

Raven then said, "Yes you can. Um....I'm trying to find a place that's available."

She nods, "Okay, if you look over there.....you'll see our books with pictures and information on homes that are available."

She points to the other side of the lobby. Raven nods, "Thank you."

Raven walks away and goes to the table with the books. The group follows. Raven then says, "Okay everyone, grab a book and start looking."

Evan comes beside Raven and grabs one, "What kind of place are we looking for?"

Raven then says, "Any place that's big and has a lot of rooms."

Each person then took a book and looked through it. Evan looks at the book Raven had, and then at her. Raven's eyes shifted to Evan's direction. As soon as she saw him look at her, she turns her head and smiles at him. Evan smiles back. Both of them then went back to looking at their books.

Hikari looks at a book and then looks at everyone else, "Question. Why can't we all stay at my house?"

Raven looks at Hikari, "Is it big enough to house eight people?"

Hikari looks to the floor, "No."

Raven then said, "There's your answer."

The group laughs at what Raven said. Raven then says, "Now....back to business."

Serenity smiles, "Oh! Here's a nice home."

Everyone looks at the picture Serenity was pointing at. It was a small white house that looked half decent. Raven then says, "Too small."

Serenity then goes, "Aww.....okay. I'll look some more then."

Raven flips through countless pages as did the others. Sith sees a picture, "This house looks cool."

Everyone looks. Sith was pointing at a creepy looking mansion. Zero then says, "Uhh.....I don't think that's......"

Hikari then says, "That's awesome looking!"

Serenity then says, "Uhh.....that looks kinda creepy."

Pheonix then says, "It looks like a haunted house in an amusement park."

Sith then says, "What's wrong with it? I think it looks cool. Reminds me of Resident Evil One."

Raven finally looks, "Fuck that! We're not moving into a place like that. Keep looking."

Sith sighs, "Fine! God! It was only a suggestion."

Sith then continues to flip through more pages. Raven throws down her book, "This is bullshit! It's hopeless!"

Evan then puts his hand on Raven's back for comfort, "Don't give up. We'll find a place eventually."

Raven looks at Evan, "I hope so."

Pheonix shouts, "Hey! I think I found it! The perfect one!"

Everyone then crowds around Pheonix to get a good look. Pheonix points to a picture, "Look at this. It's awesome looking!"

Everyone looks at the picture Pheonix was pointing at. This house was fairly big. Perfect size actually. It was only one story, but still acceptable. It had a huge backyard AND front yard. It also had a good sized driveway and a nice looking garage. The painting looked like it was chipping away. Red that tried to cover white. The fences looked as if they were falling apart and flowers and weeds were growing wildly.

Serenity then said, "Umm......isn't that a little.......uhh, umm...."

Serenity finally says, "It's a dump."

Evan then says, "Geez. That's gonna take some handy work."

Pheonix smiles, "Exactly! It has the room. We just need to make it into our own."

Hikari then says, "It has nice space."

Zero then says, "It's not so bad if we all work together on it."

Sith then says, "It actually looks kinda.....cool. Okay."

Everyone then looks to Raven. She then takes the book from Pheonix and looks at it. Pheonix smiles at her, "Well? What do you think of it?"

Raven looks at everyone and then at the page. She then read the information on it. She starts muttering a little, reading it lowly, "Located in the forest area of Green Waters. Yadi yadi yada. Has a maximum of ten bedrooms. Includes basement, garage, shed, and water stream. Cost is......"

Raven's eyes widened, "$50, 000?!!!"

Raven then says, "I'm sorry but......I know this house is perfect and everything....but we only have $30, 000."

Pheonix then says, "That's okay. Like you said, we can all work for it. All we need is $20, 000."

Raven then looks at the picture again, "I dunno......that could take weeks!"

Pheonix then looks to Sith, "You said you worked right?"

Sith then says, "Yeah."

Pheonix then says, "What do you work as?"

Sith then says, "I'm a soul hunter for Reapers. Their usually worth a lot. Especially if they're targeting a human soul, and that soul is willing to pay big time! That's when the REAL money comes in."

Pheonix then says, "Okay. That's a start. The rest of us will need to go job hunting."

Raven then says, "Except for Hikari."

Pheonix then asks, "Why?"

Raven then looks to Hikari, "Because.....she's willing to give up $30, 000 for us. All of us."

Hikari smiles, "Aww......thanks Raven."

Raven smiles back, "From this moment on, you don't have to do anything further for us."

Hikari smiles more, "Awww......"

Pheonix then says, "Alright, that's fair."

Evan then says, "Aww, man! Does this mean I have to do something too? Since she's not doing nothing?"

Raven then says, "Why? I'm gonna have to look for a job too."

Evan sighs, "Fine. I'll look too."

They all then go to the front desk. They show the clerk the house they want. Raven then says, "This is the one we want. Is there anyway we can have it held for us?"

The clerk looks and says, "There is. If you make some of the payment now and the rest later, it's yours."

Raven smiles, "Cool! Thank you."

The clerk looks, "Uh....umm.....are you sure you want that one?"

Raven nods, "Yes we're sure. This is the one we want. Otherwise we wouldn't have came here telling you we want this."

The clerk sighs, "Okay. Do you have some of the payment?"

Everyone then looks at Hikari. She digs in her purse. She pulls out a black bank card, "Is debit okay?"

Meanwhile, Coslotus was alone in the wastelands of Grimstone. Vortexes were flowing everywhere. He fed off of outworldly energy. He needed it. One reason why he strayed away from the group.

He then goes under one of them and sits down, meditating. A black aura then surrounds him. He closes his eyes as his aura began to suck away the energy from the vortex he was under. He started to feel re-energized. He takes in a deep, slow breath, and then breathes it back out.

His eyes then open as he sensed a shift in the energy. He feels another aura that wasn't normal. He looks up and sees a giant creature falling over him. He rolls himself in the air and lands in a crouching position on his feet. Coslotus' eyes narrow, "That's not right."

The giant creature was huge and grey. It wore big black armour. It had cold black eyes and giant hands almost hard as rock. It has massive muscles and a massive horn on it's nose. It was none other than a rhinoceros demon. It smirks as soon as it caught sight of Coslotus, "Little weakling out here?! This shall be fun!!"

Coslotus smirks, "I'm not the one who's weak here. I suggest you don't push me to find out."

The demon smirks, "What happens then?"

Coslotus straightens himself from his crouching position, "You don't want to know."

The demon laughs, "Oh, now I do!"

The demon then slides his foot on the ground, ready to ram Coslotus. The rhino demon's nostrils flare and snort out steam. His eyes glow red with rage and hate. Coslotus smirks, revealing his fangs, "Don't say I never warned you."

Coslotus then cracks his knuckles and adjusted his wings, cracking them as well. The last thing he cracked was his neck. He then crouches at bit, getting ready for the brute's attack. The demon growls, "Don't worry. I won't!!!"

The demon flares his nostrils again and drags his foot in the dirt, over and over again. Coslotus' eyes go colder and his claws grow longer. His clawed feet stratches the dirt a little. Anxious with the excitement of feeling the thrill of battle.

The rhino demon then flares it's nostrils one more time and roars out a battle cry of fierce rage. It finally runs at full speed at Coslotus. It's footsteps heavy up to the point it shook the ground. Coslotus then sticks his hands out in front of him, with his claws at the ready.

The rhino finally rams him. Coslotus then grabs hold of his horn with one hand and then his neck with the other. Coslotus' feet dig into the ground. He growls and his eyes go deeper into coldness. The demon growls, "You....won't....defeat me!!"

Coslotus smirks, "Really? I beg to differ."

He then punches the demon in the face. The demon goes flying to the otherside of the area. He lands on the ground with a big smash, leaving a giagantic dent in the earth. Coslotus then walks towards the demon, without a single sweat.

Coslotus' smirk widens, "You were saying?"

The demon gets up, now even more angered. He shouts, "I'LL HAVE YOUR HEAD!!!"

He runs at Coslotus again. He then steps to the side slightly, dodging him. He then grabs the demon with one hand, "Not likely......but I'll take your energy."

Coslotus then began to glow the same black aura as before. The rhino demon then began to glow as well. An aura then came from the demon. It started to get drained slowly out of him, now going into Coslotus. The demon's eyes widened as his energy was leaving him. Coslotus smirks evily, "You sure talk big for a big, useless weakling."

The demon's eyes then began to droop as more of his energy was being added to Coslotus. The demon's eyes finally closed as his energy was now gone. Coslotus then throws him on the ground. He then cracks his neck, "Could've been more fun...at least I got what I needed..."

With that, Coslotus then walks away, now going back to the group.