March 10th, 2044

School Yard, Behind the Gym

"Alright." Sei finished writing on the chalkboard before turning to the kids in front of him. "Anybody who can solve this problem on the board, I'll give you a thousand yen."

The problem he wrote on the board was a complicated mathematical solution with signs that most people weren't used to seeing. The boy had copied the question from a textbook with the answer on the next page but he had it memorized.

The kids look at the problem with trepidation, unable to decipher this seemingly meaningless question.

Sei nervously looked at his watch. Only a few more minutes before recess was over and no one was willing to risk solving the question because if they didn't solve it then they'd look stupid.

Until one boy raised his hand in the crowd. "I'd like to solve it." The boy stepped forward in front of the crowd of kids, his bright green eyes glistening with glee and his smile wide and cheeky. He stood out in the crowd with his medium-length strawberry blonde hair and seemingly-sadistic smile but what caught everybody's attention were his next set of words. "If I can answer the question, then I can slap you around as many times as I want."

Sei laughed. "You really think you can solve this, Archer? I'd like to see."

Archer went up to the chalkboard and without hesitating, wrote down the formula for the math problem and made an exclamation point next to the answer. He turned to the crowd and he dropped the chalk like it was a mic.

Sei looked over the answer and gasped in horror. He looked over the textbook to check its authenticity and trembled with terror when he realized that Archer solved the problem without batting hesitating.

Archer looked at Sei, malice in his eyes. He brought his hand up and brought it across Sei's cheek. "On a scale of one to ten, how bad did that hurt? One being painless, ten being agonizing."

Sei clutched his cheek. "Four."

Archer punched him this time. "How about that. Did that hurt? I sure hope so." He backhanded Sei and shoved him to the ground, laughing. "You did say that if I could solve it, I could slap you around as many times as I want."

"I didn't say that. Please!"

"Please keep going? If you say so."

"I'll give you a thousand yen if you stop!"

"Hah, I'm not in this for the money."

"Two thousand!" Sei reached into his pocket and took out another thousand yen bill. "Here."

Archer took the cash and pocketed it. "Thank you." Just as planned, beat him up until I get twice as much as he was originally offering. I'm so smart.

His hair and eyes turned black.

I still want to hurt him though.

"Leave him alone."

Archer turned to the new voice coming from the crowd. It belonged to a boy he recognized. In hindsight, it would be absolutely impossible to not recognize him.

"Hey, Angel." He smiled at the boy. "Playing heroics again?"

"Leave Sei alone. Stop tormenting him."

Archer kicks Sei in the stomach. "Make me."

"Okay." Angel clenched his jaw. He moved over to Sei and helped him up. "Sei, write another math problem on the board, if I can solve it then Archer will have to leave you alone."

Sei stood up and stared at Archer with trepidation. He picked up his fallen textbook and erased the current problem on the board before replacing it with another that was just as complicated.

Angle picked up the chalkboard and followed Archer's method in writing the formula to solve before writing an exclamation point next to the answer. He looked at Archer with a nervous look in his eye.

"That's correct," Sei said. He looked over the answer and smiled. "Thank you, Angel."

Angel did a mic drop of the chalk as well. "Now leave Sei alone."

Archer shrugged. "Alright, a deal's a deal. Us smart guys got to take care of each other."

The kids in the crowd started murmuring.

"Wow," one of them said. "Those two are geniuses; I can't even comprehend the math problems on the board."

The boy beside him leaned in and whispered, "They're geniuses."

"That's interesting; they're geniuses but they're complete opposites. One of them is a sadistic genius and the other is a heroic genius."

"And they're twins!"

Archer and Angel looked at each other in the eyes, a silent conversation happening between them that only the twins knew about. Archer distinguished himself from his identical twin brother by having his strawberry blonde bangs come down over his left eye while his twin brother took a more conservative approach and had his hair swept away from his forehead so there were no bangs.

Only two more minutes before recess was up. The kids had departed, Archer among them. Angel turned back to check on Sei.

"Are you okay?" He touched Sei's sore stomach.

"I'm fine," the boy reassured. He pulled two bills of one thousand yen out of his pocket. "Here, for your trouble."

"What?" Angel took the cash. "Thank you but I-"

"Thanks for saving me."

Angel pocketed the money. "Anytime."

With ninety seconds to spare, Sei ran back to the playground and waited patiently for the whistles to call everyone to lunch.

Angel jogged away before reuniting with his twin brother, Archer.

Archer spread his arms out and wrapped them around Angel's shoulders. "Good job, brother." He kisses him on the forehead. "The plan worked."

Angel dropped his heroic facade and averted his gaze, staring shyly at the ground. He took out the money in his pocket and held it out to Archer.

"Nah, keep it bro." He took out his two thousand yen. "See, I told you there was an easy way to make cash. My plan worked. I bully someone into giving me money, you step in play, play the hero, and get more money or we split the money that I got. Since you got two thousand yen, it's yours to keep."

"Why?" Angel asked with guilt. "Why did you have to beat him up?"

Archer grabbed Angel's head and made him look him in the eyes. "If you had a problem with my plan, you should've spoken up." He patted the top of his head. "You're smart, Angel, but you lack initiative. You need to step outside your shy zone and stand up for yourself."

Angel averted his eyes once more. "S-sorry, Archer."

"You'd be dead without me. As much as I want you to change, just know that I'll always have you back." He gives him a hug and says into his ear, "I'm your brother, brothers take care of each other."

"I-I know."

The whistle blew, signaling everyone that it was time for lunch.

"Lunchtime." Archer dragged his brother with him to the cafeteria.

They were having rice today in the cafeteria. They sat with some upperclassmen but they sat at their own table. As Archer and Angel sat together eating their lunch, a short boy with a buzzcut walked up to Archer with a Hostess cupcake. He left it on Archer's table before turning to leave.

"Hold on," Archer called out. He stood up and approached the boy. He held the snack up. "This is a cupcake, what was the deal?"

The boy cringed in fear and looked down at the ground. Archer grabbed him by the back of the hair and made him look. "What. Was. The. Deal?"

"A-apple pie," the boy stuttered.

"Yes. I helped you with your homework; you owe me. I don't give my intelligence away for free." He dropped the cupcake and punched the kid in the stomach, making him fold over on the ground. "How does that feel?" He kicks him in the side once. "I hope that hurts."

The boy fell to the ground once more, the crowd of students gasping around them. The teachers and workers in the school cafeteria observed from a distance but none had decided to act.

"Don't worry," one of the chefs spoke, "Kira will take care of the bad kids for us."

Archer jerked his thumb up in the direction of the chefs. "You hear that? No one is going to help you. They believe that Kira is going to save you so there's no need to act and stop me." He kicks him in the stomach. "You're at my mercy now."

"Kira will save me," the boy whispered.

Archer smiled. "We'll see about that, kid."

One of the students in the crowd got up and marched over to Archer's side. She grabbed him by his hair hard and dragged him away. Without thinking, she did the same to Angel and took them both out of the cafeteria with her.

When all three of them were out of sight in a corner, she threw both of them against the wall.

"Archer." She spoke without emotions in her voice as she stared at them without emotions in her expression. "You like abusing your power, don't you?"

"Rain," he hissed, "you humiliated me in front of everybody."

Rain stared at them blankly. Rain was slightly tall for her age and she had hair as red as her mother's and blue eyes she inherited from her father. Her hair was coming down to her neck but whenever someone spoke to her, they never looked at her hair or eyes, only the look on her face. She always had a blank expression on her face and looked to be staring off into space. No matter the circumstances, her expression never seemed to change, which made it extremely hard, if not impossible to read her emotions. Whenever she spoke, there were no emotions behind her tone.

"That's what you get. You're abusing your power and that's going to end badly for this utopia." She grabs him by his hair and forces him to his knees, gripping onto his hair tighter. "We're supposed to live in a world that is free of tyranny and evil. You just can't help but play the bully, can you?"

"I can't help it; do you know what it's like to be completely free from Kira's scope? While everyone lives in fear, we live our lives how we wish. I love torturing people."

"Abraham Lincoln once said..." she switches from Japanese to English as she recites, "'Nearly all men can stand adversity but if you want to test a man character give him power". She switches back to Japanese. "You never should've been spared by Kira." She looks at Angel. "You are too much of a coward to stop him. How pathetic."

Angel looked down at the ground in shame.

"Shut up," Archer growled. He managed to free himself from Rain's grip. "You're just jealous because I have a personality." He stands up and looks her in the face. "Because I'm better than you!"

Rain stares into him with a blank expression on her face, his words doing nothing to deter her. "Mom and Dad told me to watch you two. They know how mischievous you guys can get so they made it my mission to make sure you guys didn't have too much fun in public. They're going to be angry and upset when I tell them that you're bullying people and allowing it to happen." The second half of the sentence was directed at Angel.

"You're such a snitch, Rain."

"But... I will keep this hush-hush under one condition."

"And what would that be."

She pulled out two papers folded into squares from her back pocket, one black, and the other gray. Archer's eyes widened as he recognized the game.

"Ddakji." Her face remained expressionless as she handed him the black square.

He took the square. "What's the deal?"

"We will play one round of Ddakji. If you can flip my square over, then I will not snitch on Mom and Dad about your bullying activities. However, if I win, then you must get slapped?"

He blinked rapidly. "What?"

"You've seen Squid Game. It's just like that but a little different. If I win, I still won't tell but in return, you must play Ddakji ten times at any time of my calling. This means if you are knocking some kid down for not bringing your apple pie, if I say we're playing Ddakji then we're playing and if you refuse, you'll get slapped ten times. I have ten opportunities to silence you at any time of my calling. Deal?"

Archer laughed. "Deal."

She got down to the ground and put her paper on the ground. She made sure it was flattened against the ground before standing up. "You first."

"You just made an enemy with the wrong sibling, sis." He rubbed his hands together and held his hand up. He threw his piece down. "I'm going to bury you in the dirt!" The square piece bounced off, Rain's piece not flipping over. His smile vanishes and he goes silent. "Uh... I mean..."

Rain carefully pries her piece from the ground. She looks at Archer's square and points to it. "Flip your piece over for me." Archer groaned and did as he was told. While she was distracted, Rain removed something for her Ddakji paper and put it in her pocket. She looked over her shoulder. Angel was still looking at the ground in shame and did not notice.

With Archer's square flipped over, Rain cocked her hand back and threw her piece down, making Archer's square successfully flip over.

"Shit," Archer cursed under his breath.

Rain sighed and looked at her brother. "I now have ten opportunities to silence you." She retrieved both Ddakji pieces before looking at her wristwatch. "Oh my, look at the time, lunch is almost over. Time flies when you're humiliating your little brothers."

"Hahaha. You'll pay for this. Come on, Angel, let's get back to lunch." Archer strode off.

Angel began trailing after him before Rain grabbed his shoulder. "Must you mindlessly obey your brother every time?"

Angel averted his gaze. "Well... I... uh..."

"You need to grow a backbone, Angel; you may be the same age but you were born six minutes before he was. Stop treating him like he is older than you."

"I know... it's just..."

"I swear, if stuttering and hesitating was a language, you'd be fluent in it. Get back to the cafeteria, finish what's left of your lunch, and keep an eye on our dear delusional little brother."

"O-okay."

As Angel walked away, Rain looked down at her folded pieces of paper. The one she chose for the Ddakji game, the gray paper, originally had a piece of tape stuck on the other tend. The paper stuck to the ground so it couldn't be flipped over by Archer's paper. She had to quickly remove it before flipping his square over while hiding it from him. Rain sighed before pocketing both papers and heading back into the cafeteria.

Hours passed and the school day was over. Rain met up with her younger siblings in the front of the school, where they expected their mother to pick them up. Archer and Angel were arguing amongst themselves once more but they silenced themselves when they met up with their sister. After a few minutes of waiting, their mother's car drove up and they got inside with Rain sitting in the front.

"How was school?" their mother asked.

"Average." Rain looked over her shoulder at her younger brothers. "What about you?"

Archer sighed and laced his hands together behind his head. "Nice. I got to make two thousand yen. A kid bet that I couldn't solve a super complicated math formula from a textbook but I proved him wrong. I could make a career off of solving complicated math problems. Maybe I should join the chess club and start bidding money."

"No," their mother said. "Your father wouldn't want you to abuse your intelligence like that."

"I'm sure he'd approve. I'm sticking it to those who are dumber than me. If they were smart, they wouldn't make bets with me in the first place. Those stupid idiots."

"Why?" Angel asked. "Why... would you make bets with people you know are less intelligent than you."

"Yeah," Rain agreed. "Only picking people dumber than you seems cowardly. Are you afraid of people upstaging you? Afraid to get slapped in the face?"

Archer growled. "At least I have the balls to flaunt my intelligence. Angel here is just as smart but he is pathetically co-dependent. Big sis, you are too much of a yes woman to Mom and Dad; am I the only one who is honest without himself?"

Their mother laughed. "Try beating Dad in chess, Archer."

The boy growled.

The Yagami Apartment

After the family reached home, their mother walked them inside quickly. Once they threw their backpacks on the ground, she told them that she had to leave.

"I'm on my lunch break from work and I have to get back right away," she said. "Grandma and grandpa will be watching you." She looks to Rain. "Take care of your little brothers."

"I will," Rain monotoned.

Their mother kissed each of them on their foreheads before getting back into her car and driving off. Archer and Angel got to work on their homework while Rain went into the kitchen. Knowing what time her parents would be home, she pulled out the ingredients for tonight's dinner. Angel has asked her what they were having for dinner.

With a dry tone to match her semi-permanent expression, she answered, "Pasta."

As Rain turned around, her grandfather materialized in front of her. "Sofu," she addressed.

"Granddaughter," he replied. "Any trouble today in school?"

"None. ArchAngel got into a fight. I whipped them both into shape."

Veins protruded on Archer's skull.

"Excellent," their grandfather praised. "Given how long it'll take for your parents to get home, I'll start making dinner." He went over to the counter and started sorting out the ingredients to make pasta. He was about to pull out a pan when he realized something. "Crap, I forgot to do something." He called out to his wife.

Rain's grandmother appeared in front of her.

"What's up, hubby?" their grandmother asked with a gleeful smile on her face.

"Time's almost out for me, I have to go kill someone. Can you watch the kids for me?"

"Of course! Nothing would delight me more than spending time with my little fireflies." She hugged her granddaughter. "Maybe we could start our own cooking company; You can be the chef and I can be your sous chef."

Rain's dead and emotionless expression remained on her face. "When school is over."

"Be back in a few." Their grandfather left to go kill someone.

Rain and her grandmother started cooking the pasta. They served dinner to Archer and Angel as their parents came through the door with their grandfather in tow.

"Hey, Rain," their father said. "I see you already made dinner. Thank you."

"Where would ArchAngel be without me?" Rain looked at her siblings before refocusing her attention. "They'll be dead in a gutter."

"Thanks for looking after your siblings." Their mother kissed her on the head once more. She looked at her two younger children. "Were you good to your big sis?"

"We were," Angel nodded.

"Eh," Archer shrugged. "What difference does it make? She makes us dinner, we eat it."

Their parents went into their room to dress into something more casual. They came out and ate the pasta dinner at the table with the grandparents watching over them.

"Me and Angel made four thousand yen," Archer said offhandedly.

Their father sighed before taking a fork full of pasta. "Did you steal it?"

"No, I pummeled my fist into their face and they offered to give me more money if I stopped."

Their father blew on the pasta. "If you were a criminal, I'd kill you."

Archer laughed. "Aww, but because you love your son so much, you'll spare me."

Rain took a sip of cider before saying, "I can assure you, he won't be pulling off any of his mischievous schemes for a while."

"Why not?" their father inquired.

Rain stole a side-glance at Archer. "Because I made him pinky promise and breaking a pinky promise is like a slap in the face." If she were a normal person, she would be smirking but she kept her emotionless expression on her face.

"Good." Their father looked at Angel. "Did Archer steal the money?" He needed to hear from a third party.

The shy boy shook his head. "No, he didn't steal it, he wasn't asking for money to begin with."

Their father looked at both sons. "Archer, you're going to give that money back. You apologize to that boy, understand?"

"What, why?"

"I will not have you abusing your power. In case you've forgotten, with Kira now the god of the new world, bullying in schools has dropped. I will not have you disrupting the peace so you better give the money back and apologize. Or else... I'll take away your notebook."

Archer growled. "I will give back the money but I will not apologize for it."

"And you're going to stop bullying people."

"I will not apologize for that either."

Angel looked down at his plate. Blushing badly, he looked up with closed eyes and turned to his parents. "I'll apologize for you."

"Don't fight my battles for me, Angel!"

"I don't want you to feel embarrassed brother, I'll apologize for you." He looked his brother in the eyes bashfully. "I'll pretend to be you and then I'll give the money back and apologize."

"No, I will not apologize for what I've done but I will give the money back without apologizing."

"I'll do what you've done. I'll do a math problem that is easy for kids to solve and then I'll give the money back to Sei after he wins."

Archer broke out laughing. "That is exactly what I would've done brother, you have impersonated me so much that you know how I would've given something back without apologizing." Suddenly, his smile vanished and was replaced with a glare. He grabbed his brother's collar. "However, if you humiliate me in any way shape or form, I will hurt you."

"No you won't," their mother wanted. "It's one thing to hurt kids but your family, never your family Archer."

Rain looked over at Archer. "I agree. Beating up your brother would be a slap in the face."

Archer growls at her.

"Blood is thicker than water." Their father took a sip of cider. "Remember that, Archer." He rubs his son's head. "I'm proud of you for wanting to help your brother out, Angel, but you don't have to do this. If you do this, then you're letting him get away with murder." He leans in to whisper in his ear. "And you know what we do with murderers."

Angel gasped in shock and started hyperventilating.

"But you're not a murderer, any of you." He smiled and patted him on the back to calm him down. "You're gods."

He ran a hand through his strawberry blond hair. "We are the gods of the new world."

A/N: I'm back with the fourth arc.