Reborn stares at the Cloud God, the other caked in make-up and peppered with tattoos and piercings.

"I am the Great Skull-sama!" Skull blinks at Reborn with a big smile on his face, waiting for praise.

Reborn hates this place already. He very easily shoves Skull out of his face, stands from the arm chair Mammon dumped him into, and starts walking towards the door of the huge garage that Skull apparently also uses as a house.

"Wait, wait, senpai!" Skull panics and rushes after Reborn, latching onto the Sun's arm and hugging it tightly. "It's so scary when it's dark all the time! I'm scared of the dark!"

"You're a god," Reborn protests but does stop.

"Don't judge me!" Skull wails and then just drops, still clinging to Reborn but the rest of him goes limp and becomes a dead weight.

"Are you kidding me?" Reborn snaps and tries to shake him off. It doesn't work.

Reborn huffs but does flare his powers. The country of jagged dirt mounds and high cliffs is run through with vague, twisting tracks only made from decades of wear - is bathed in a warm glow, the clustered clouds darkening the country vanishing under a greater power.

Skull cheers and pops back up again, letting go of Reborn and trotting over to jerk up the rolling garage door with a loud rattle of metal. Sunlight pours into the garage, overpowering the artificial ceiling lights. The view stares out over the wide, empty centre of the brightly lit main city, surrounded by flat and tightly packed buildings carved into the cliffs.

Cloud is a desert dotted with random ramps and craggy cliffs because it's the furthest from Rain country so it's dry most of the year. Storm borders it so they often get dust or fire storms. It's a well-known fact that everyone who lives here has something wrong with them.

A group of people are off in the distance, straddling messily assembled dirt bikes at the top of a steeply sloping cliff face. All of them take their helmets off and close their eyes to let the sunshine warm their faces.

On one side is a deep but narrow crevasse splitting the city into two, with the occasional bridge over it or lone rope. One woman is casually walking across a tight rope with a bag of groceries in each hand.

Some teenagers take a running jump over the gap between flat roofs and roll at the landing. A lot of people seem to use this method to travel around the tightly packed, staggered city buildings that run down the cliffs.

Two large dirt ramps close by Skull's house are being used by far too many people at once to play on, both cars and motorbikes barely missing each other, either over the top, or scraping past the side. Most of the vehicles look like homemade monstrosities that are definitely not safe to use.

A sizeable crowd sitting or lying on the sandy ground around the ramps cheer for every contestant. Some of them see Skull and wave happily.

"Oh, senpai," Skull says in a daze, and points off in the distance. "That part is like your place, before Sun country."

Reborn frowns. "Before Sun country-?"

Skull sniffles a bit. "It's been so long since I last saw everything lit up like this. It's so warm."

Reborn shakes the previous thought away. "Why is Cloud country so dim anyway?"

His power is strongest where he is, so Sun country gets all the benefits of seeing his mood written in the sky. The light is brightest and warmest where he is, but it also extends out and washes over what he thought was the whole world.

Rain country is bright and so is Lightning. Mist would be if not for the heavy blanket of, well, mist. Logically, the further away Reborn is, the darker the country, but it should still be bright enough to see by.

"It's because…" Skull trails off, looking around cautiously. "I'm the only god who shares a border with…Night country."

"Night?" Reborn echoes. "So there are seven of us?"

Skull quickly shakes his head and leans in, eyes wide. "Night country is full of demons."

Reborn stares and then chuckles.

"Stop that!" Skull cries. "You have no right to laugh! They're terrifying, okay? And-and they come over sometimes and everyone hides away in their houses when they ghost through the streets! It's so scary! You need to stay here and chase them out!"

"You're so weak, just do it yourself," Reborn mocks.

"Whatever," Skull grumbles. "Just stay with me, okay?" Skull lights up. "Oh, we're having the yearly race next month – we go from the border of Mist, come down to wrap around Mt Mort, then right to Storm where the finish line is. Extra points for flips and shit."

"I can't. I have to go back to my country."

"Why? Why don't you stay here with me?" Skull begs, moving up to Reborn and glomping him in a big hug. "I have lots of cool toys – and the people here are super nice."

Reborn shakes his head. "Sun country is known for farming. If I'm not there, then the food doesn't grow fast or large enough and the farmers will have to scramble to maintain their usual yield. We supply most of the other countries as well so everyone would be affected by the food shortage."

Skull pauses. "Really?"

"I'm entirely serious," Reborn admits. "I was already behind when I left. I'm going to have to work overtime to grow that much."

Skull pauses. "So we need to get you back home, so the world doesn't end?"

"It wouldn't be world-ending, just a lot of people would die."

Skull tightens his hug, summons a cloud beneath his feet, and they zoom out of the massive garage and into the sky, aiming for Sun country.

Reborn grabs onto Skull too and looks down at the very long drop to the ground. This will definitely be the fastest way back – but while he wasn't lying about the crops, he was exaggerating a lot. The dumb little Cloud is so trusting, how cute.

But actually though, can Reborn fly? Because Colonnello can summon a weapon, Verde has that cute alligator pet, and Mammon can teleport. What does Reborn get?

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A/N: Yes, Cloud country is a Mad Max rip-off. Are you telling me Skull wouldn't build a city like this?