Chapter 36- A Proposition

Umairi opened his room's door for Silica, who exited through it. "Now...where do we go..." Umairi stated while scratching his head.

(Line Break Line)

Floor 11

January 12th, 2023

"You really are enjoying your food." Umairi stated while he watched Silica devouring her breakfast. She turned red when he said this and slowed down her eating. Umairi laughed. The morning was still young and quite a few people were out heading off to where they were going.

"Hey Silica, what level are you?" Umairi asked while sipping his cup of tea. "15." She stated while while swallowing another bite.

15?! Here she was at the frontlines while only level 15! Umairi mentally sighed, he hoped she wasn't planning to do anything fighting related while she was here. "What's wrong, Onii-chan?" Silica asked while swallowing another bite. "Wha..oh, nothing." Umairi responded.

Silica shrugged and finished her breakfast of eggs.

Umairi downed the rest of his tea in one motion and set the cup down on the table. He couldn't really do that Martial Arts skill while Silica was with him, so what could they do? Umairi stroked an imaginary beard and hummed to himself while he thought.

"Hahahah!" Silica started to burst out laughing. "What?" Umairi asked confused. "Why are you stroking your face like that?" Silica asked through giggles. "I'm thinking." Umairi responded. Silica didn't pressure on but kept snickering.

Umairi rolled his eyes. But seriously, what was he going to do about her. Umairi sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose while he thought. "Do you not feel good?" Silica asked concern in her voice. "Yeah, I just don't know what to do while you're here."

Silica nodded. "I won't be here long. I promise." Something told Umairi that wasn't true but whatever. "Okay then...what will we do know?" Umairi asked. Silica shrugged and responded "I don't know…" That was helpful.

"We can't grind, we can't leave you in the wide open, and I only have a small budget." Umairi told the younger girl while fidgeting in place. "Hmm...Yeah, that is a problem...I've got nothing." Silica answered while thinking aloud.

Umairi thought a little more, he was pretty sure Silica didn't want to do nothing. "How about we go shopping?" Silica asked happily. Umairi shook his head. "Aren't you hiding from people anyway?"

Silica's face went from happy to sad. "Oh right…" She let out a huff in annoyance.

"We should head back to the room and just have a lazy day." Umairi concluded. Silica nodded in agreement but still looked upset. Umairi smiled while shaking his head, she was certainly an interesting person.

Umairi rose from the chair and stretched his back, he seemed to do that a lot. It was only about nine in the morning and most of the players who lived here were out grinding or something along those lines. Umairi watched the morning sky as the sun rose into the sky. The shadows casted by its presence made everything seem sharper than usual. The eleventh floor's main town, Taft, had no real style to it, the town was best described as just urban.

The buildings were grey and the roofs a reddish brown tile. Umairi took his attention away from his surroundings and returned back to Silica who was rising from the table. "Alright, let's go." Umairi stated while walking onto the mainstreet. Silica followed willingly, not really saying much while observing her surroundings, which Umairi was okay with.

"Yeah!" the sound of cheers could be heard around the corner of the street. What was going on? Umairi peaked around the corner and saw something he didn't expect, a duel.

The two people bashing it out could barely be seen from the massive crowd which had formed. "What's going on?" Silica asked rhetorically.

Umairi stepped up to the back of the crowd and attempted to peak over the other heads. With no success, Umairi started to slowly push his way through the crowd. The teen felt a small warm object clutch onto his hand. He quickly glanced back and spotted Silica holding onto it, trying to not get separated in the dense crowd.

Umairi, after a lot of pushing and in return complaints, finally made it to the foot of the group, which revealed the fighters. A woman who looked to be twenty-seven and a large man. The man wore heavy grey armor which covered everything but his head, which was accompanied by a large shield and one-handed sword. The man's face, from behind at least, was narrow and he short brown hair.

The woman on the other hand wore very light armor with a metal breastplate and red under clothes. She wore a black mini skirt with a red outline and red and black stockings. Her face was wide and a set of large purple eyes rested on her face. She had thin eyebrows and long brown hair which went to the middle of her back.

"You're not welcome here, Dravis!" The woman yelled while waving her hand in his direction. About half the crowd responded in cheers. The now dubbed Dravis chuckled and responded "Really? Well I'm here now, Mato!"

The woman snarled at his sarcasm, she obviously wasn't in the mood for this. "We all know of your "helping" deeds." Mato threw back, making it obvious helping was sarcastic. Umairi watched interested at the argument, which he knew would break into a fight.

"It's for the best, Mato. It's your fault for getting in our way, anyways.' Dravis chuckled back. "I did what had to be done, criminal!" Mato obviously felt a hatred for the man. "Well if you're so right, prove it in this duel." Dravis called back while spreading his arms. "Gladly." The woman responded.

She shot forward like lightning at the man, unsheathing her sword in the processing and charging a green sword skill. Dravis barely brought his shield up in time when the attack struck home. Mato sprinted around the shield and shot another skill into the gap with her one-handed sword. Dravis grunted in anger as his health bar dropped by a fifth.

Umairi didn't know who to cheer for, but something told him Mato was the good guy here. Mato jumped into the air over Dravis' head and brought down a blue skill onto his head, taking his health past the halfway mark. Umairi gasped to himself when he realized they weren't playing first strike or even if their health went down halfway.

Dravis yelled in anger as he brought down his sword with a yellow sword skill, missing Mato who was faster than him by a large margin. Mato released another skill into Dravis' side, bringing his health well into the red. Dravis jumped back and entered a defensive position. Umairi really didn't want to see someone die today. Mato prepared an overhead sword skill, which certainly have finished off the man, but it didn't.

Umairi sprinted onto to the field and caught the skill with his wrist, which left a purple hexagon. "What the hell!" Mato yelled in anger at Umairi. She pulled her sword out of his forearm and screamed at the younger man. "You little shithead! I almost had him!" The timer for the duel died out with a draw appearing over her head.

"I will not accept the taking of a life." Umairi responded, not backing down. Mato sheathed her sword and grabbed Umairi by the wrist. "You're coming with me, shithead." Mato pointed a finger at Umairi. He could've resisted but something told him he'd regret if he did.

Mato turned around and walked through the now departing crowd. Umairi caught a few of the spectator's glances, all of them saying sorry. Had he made a bad decision? The woman lead Umairi through the streets of Taft, not stopping once to check where she was going. Mato took a couple more turns before stopping in front of a ghetto looking inn.

Umairi hesitated a bit, he really needed to return to Silica. "Um...I nee-" Mato cut him off with a shove towards the door. Umairi raised both hands and went to open the door. "No, knock." Mato ordered with a shove. Umairi did as he was told and knocked on the door. Immediately, a voice asked "What does it mean to be a hero?" Mato stepped forward and answered "To assist others." There was silence, which was followed by the sound of the door opening. Umairi glanced up at the large bald man who opened the door. He wore thick heavy armor and had a grey bandana wrapped his forehead. The bald man had circular grey eyes and a thick blonde beard, making it obvious he wasn't asian.

'Welcome back, Yamato." The large man grinned as he spoke. "Who's he?" He asked while bringing his attention to Umairi. Umairi faked a smile and waved his right hand. "Just some dirt, Ruse, I need to see Larken." The large man nodded and stepped aside, allowing Mato and Umairi to enter. Mato pushed Umairi into the dark room, his eyes taking time to adjust.

Umairi blinked a few times and looked around. The room was filled with about five people, all doing their own thing. "Move." Mato ordered with another shove.

Umairi walked forward and didn't bring much of his focus to the others. "Stop." Mato ordered while pulling Umairi back by the shoulder. Umairi glanced up and saw he was facing a door. Mato walked forward and knocked on the wooden door. "Come in." A voice responded.

Mato turned the door handle and it opened effortlessly. The room on the other side was revealed to be a planning room of some kind. A female was hunched over what looked to be pieces of papers. She had black hair which was tied up in a ponytail and a grey eye, her most profound feature being the white and grey eyepatch that covered her right eye. The woman looked up at the two people in the doorway. "Who's he, Mato?" She asked while setting down a piece of paper.

"I'll explain, now come on trash." Mato commanded while shoving Umairi into the room. She closed the door behind her and motioned for Umairi to sit at one of the two chairs in the room. Umairi did as she said and sat in the wooden chair which was placed across from the desk where the one eyed woman was at. Mato took a seat at the other chair and leaned forward angrily.

"So who's this?" One eye asked while leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table. "This little shithead caused me to lose Dravis!" Mato responded while glaring at Umairi. "Hey, you could've killed him." Umairi answered while holding up his hands. "I've done it before." Mato mumbled back.

"Wait, is this true?" One eye asked Mato while glaring at her. "oh shit…" Mato answered while slowly scooting back in the chair. "God damnit, Mato! You know our policy!" One eye yelled. Mato grinned innocently."In my defense, he tried to fight me." One eye sighed and looked at Umairi. "Can you please leave for a second?" Umairi nodded and quickly rose out of the chair and practically ran out of the room.

Umairi closed the door behind him and stood next to it, trying to ignore the looks of the people in the room. "Oi, who are you?" a voice asked, making Umairi jump. He looked at the source and spotted a teenager standing in front of him. "Uh...Umairi." Umair responded nervously. The teenager looked to be around 13 with long baggy hair which went down to his brown eyes. His armor was light, only leather, and he stood almost a head and a half shorter than Umairi.

"Cool, I'm Rino, but you can call me Rino." The young teen stated while pointing to himself.

Umairi didn't question the logic behind that, so he shrugged it off. Rino pointed to another person, an adult this time, with short black hair and a wide jaw who wore medium armor. "That's Six." The adult looked in their direction and nodded.

He pointed to the next person, a male with combed brown hair and brown eyes and light armor. "That's Dallin, he doesn't really know Japanese well." Rino stated while pointing to another person. This person was tallest among them, a head taller than Umairi. He had messy dirty blonde hair and brown eyes with a narrow jaw. He also wore medium armor. "That's Giraffe, you can call him Aff." Rino stated. Aff nodded and grinned at Umairi as he rested on the wall.

"And finally, that's Striker." Rino declared while pointing to a girl with short brown hair and brown eyes and light armor.

Umairi looked at her and she immediately looked away. "Don't worry about her, she's just really shy. It took her a month to just look at Larken." Rino answered Umairi before he even asked the question. "I'm guessing you've already met Ruse, Uma." Rino asked. Umairi nodded and looked around at the building he was in. The building looked to be a run down warehouse with old moldy boxes everywhere. The group of five people didn't really do much besides lying or sitting on the ground.

Umairi jumped when he heard the sound of a door opening. "Hey, you, come in." it was the one eyed person who was standing near the doorway. Umairi nodded and walked past Mato who was leaving, a depressed look on her face. Mato closed the door behind her when Umairi walked in.

One eye sighed and walked back over to her desk, leaning her rear end on the edge. "Okay...I want to know. Who are you?" one eyed asked while pinching the bridge of her nose. "Umairi." Our protagonist answered. "I have a question too, who are you?" Umairi asked after scraping the courage to do so.

One eye looked up and chuckled. "Name's Larken, I'm guessing you've already met Mato." Larken questioned. Umairi nodded for his response. "What do you guys do?" Umairi asked another question. Larken chuckled again and answered "Well… we're Justice League, also known as a hero guild."

That kind of made sense. "How come I was brought here?" Umairi asked the next question on his mind. "You didn't have to come here. If anything, I'm grateful that you did what you did." Larken stated while crossing her arms. "Uh...you're welcome, I guess…" Umairi answered while rubbing the back of his head.

Larken looked Umairi directly in the eyes, which made him uncomfortable. "I have a proposition for you." Larken stated. Umairi raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by proposition?" Larken chuckled to herself. "How'd you like to join our guild and fight the worst of the worst, the criminals?"

Umairi thought for a second. "I'm sorry, but no." Larken looked shocked by his answer. "What do you mean?" She questioned, regaining her posture. "I mean, I'm a solo player." Umairi answered. Larken nodded. "I see. Well, that's your choice. The invitation will always be open." She opened her menu and sent Umairi a friends request, which he accepted. "I have to return to my friend who got left behind when Mato pulled me away."

Larken shrugged and blinked her left eye. 'It was nice meeting you, Umairi." Umairi nodded and bowed. "Same." He responded. Umairi straightened his back and left the room. Walking by everybody in the room, he nodded to them has he left. Ruse opened the door for Umairi.

Umairi walked into the morning sun and squinted a little bit. Now where was Silica?

(Line BREAK!)

Floor 11

January 12th, 2023

"Where were you, Onii-chan!" Silica cried angrily. "Sorry, I had some business." Umairi answered. Silica was to the point of balling. "I'm really sorry." Umairi stated. She nodded and turned around. "Let's go rest at the inn."

Now, that's something Umairi could agree on. "Agreed." Umairi responded while preparing to head back to the inn.

A/N And we are done. After much thought, I have decided to do longer and less updates rather than shorter and more. Mostly due to school about to start and family. Please follow and favorite this shit, and become a Desu today. *Theme song plays aka, the Akame Ga Kill theme*