I feel as if I was in this position before. Currently my hands were cuffed in a gray room, in front of me was a table of the same color with a cup; which I assumed to be filled with water. However that wasn't the weirdest thing that happened, rather it was the fact that I'm here, I should be dead. The last thing I remember was settling down, as the blood from the wound created from two swords that seemed to grasp victory at any time leaked blood draining whatever physical warmth from my body. My body was damaged to an extreme, to be honest the only reason I was alive was through sheer drive and will to see the plan I spent so long on finish. As I was reminiscing on my past situation the door in front me opened.

"How are you , my friend?"

In front of me was a woman slightly shorter than me, around 6 foot. She had dark green hair. However the main thing that catched my attention was the large singular horn pointing out of her forehead. I don't know why it reminded me of Shuten, Ibuki and the other Onis. It looked way too natural for it to be a cosplay.

"I'm doing good, I'm deeply confused on how I got here but I hope I can get out of this situation." I said.

"Understandable, it's late and I want to go and drink with a friend who needs to take a break. Anyway I'm officer Hoshiguma and I will be the one conducting the interrogation." She said,

"Cool. The name is Apollo" I said as I reached my hand out for a handshake.

"As much as I would love to, I can't touch the suspect incase of use of arts; unless action is needed. Sorry about that." She replied with a small smile.

Arts? They are scared I will attack her with paint? Oh where the hell did I end up? I know it's Hermes's fault for this, I swear I'm going to throw her off a cliff.

"Damn, I got rejected again. My luck with women truly is piss poor." I said adding some sadness to it.

"Ha, ha. I hope it doesn't come across as that, just following the rules. On to business, what were you doing in officer Swire's truck?" She asked.

"You see that is a very very good question that I also want answered." I replied.

"So you also don't know, I see. What was the last thing you remembered?" She asked.

"The usual relaxation in the mountains, understanding how I reached inner peace." I said.

The interrogation went like this for what felt like 20-30 minutes. It was clear from each other's expressions that the situation wasn't getting any closer to being solved. Hoshiguma pointed out how some of my answers don't make sense in regards to the surrounding area, such as me relaxing on the mountain even though we are in a mega urban city. However after some time the session ended.

"Well, thank you for your time. I'll get back to you as soon as my colleagues go over what you said." Hoshiguma said.

With that she left the room once again leaving only me and an untouched cup of water. After some time, Hoshiguma came back.

"I have some good news for you, it seems that you can be released today." She said,

"That's amazing to hear." I replied.

Hoshiguma gestured for me to follow her as she walked me out of the building and removed the cuffs around my arms. During the walk I came across a harrowing sighting. I can't read a damn thing in this building, I can understand what they are saying but reading is no good. I wasn't given much time to think about this since the sound of pouring rain catched my attention.

"Well I guess this is where we parted ways. It's pouring hard outside but you should be able to catch a taxi or something. Stay safe on the way home." Hoshiguma said as she extended her hand out.

"Thank you, and it was a pleasure meeting you." I replied, grasping her hand.

After that she went back inside the building which caused me to quickly lose sight of her. With her gone I walked forward and took a seat on the steps leading to the doorway. I reached into the cube and pulled out a book I've wanted to read for a while. I opened page one and started reading. While I could tell that it was cold outside from the wind that kept hitting me, the cube helped regulate my body temperature so I stayed comfortable. I honestly couldn't tell you why I didn't just run off into the city, I wouldn't be affected by the cold or anything. If nothing else it would be very useful to do so I can get a better understanding of what happened after I lost.

"Could be dead and this is a sort of afterlife or is this Hermes moving me to another world before I could notice?" I asked myself.

I decided to push those thoughts away and enjoy the book I was reading. It felt alien for things to be this quiet, even though reading a book with the rain wasn't something new; this time it felt different. This feeling was intoxicating, euphoric even. If one asked me how long I've been out here I couldn't answer, time seemed meaningless to me currently; the only things that mattered were me, this book and the white noise of the world.

"Uh sir?"

I was snapped out of my nearly eternal bless by a weak sounding voice, if it was any weaker than it wouldn't surprise me if the rain covered it. I looked up to see it was a child, around 14-15 years old, and it was quite clear that they weren't in the best place in many ways. Her clothes were torn in many places barely giving her any shielding from nature, cuts were found along her legs along with small spots on her legs and arms. The closer I looked at them the more I could tell that they weren't any normal spots, they had dept to them. The only thing that looked anywhere close to decent were her gray horns that poked out from the top of her head.

"What can I do for you little one?" I asked.

Her expression changed for a moment, almost as if the act of talking to her was mind blowing.

"Do you have anything? Clothes, food. Anything please?" She pleaded.

Her eyes looked empty, dead even. Others would say her eyes looked life an abyss, but I would say at least an abyss had life to them. Her body shivering doesn't help either. I stood up which in turn caused the girl to flinch. I proceed to take off the sweater I was wearing and sweatpants, leaving me with only a white shirt and underwear.

"Here, take these. You need them much more than me." I said.

The girl walked up the steps and accepted the clothes. She put them on immediately . I expected the girl to leave after putting them on but instead she walked next to me and sat down. I didn't bother questioning before I went into my previous position and continued reading.

"Are you n-not afraid of me?"

I looked to my right towards the girl.

"Why should I be?" I asked genuinely curious.

The girl stayed quiet for a moment.

"Most people don't give us Sarkaz time to explain, they only see us as devils or demons even if we didn't do anything to them. It only gets worse for infected Sarzak. It wasn't uncommon for people to just beat you." She said,

"Devils, huh. If you are truly considered a devil then I say the world is in a peaceful state. The devils I've seen would make you Sarkaz look anything but that, plus you look pretty human and nice to me" I said.

The girl didn't say anything. She stayed there, likely looking out into the distance.

"There should be a nutrition bar in one of my pockets, you won't be able to read it but it should give you some energy." I said.

For a few moments I could hear the sound of rustling, the sound of plastic being peeled. I didn't have to look to know that the girl was devouring the bar. This whole situation brought me back to a conversation I had with Hermes during one of our travels. It was also pouring hard that day and Hermes was scammed out of her money so we were forced to sleep in a poorly made makeshift tent.

"What are you still doing here?"

I was once again snapped out of my daze as I turned around to see the familiar green colored hair of the oni lookalike.

"I don't have anywhere to go, and the same seems to apply to her." I said as I motioned to the girl beside me.

"This really isn't your day." She replied.

I stood up but before I could even reply I could hear some very loud yelling coming from inside the building. It was the voices of another two females.

"I always question how you even get this position, sometimes you idiot tiger."

The first one was a fairly short woman wearing a black vest with a white undershirt that was clearly shown, along with that she wore some short shorts. However, just like with Hoshiguma, the things that catched my attention were the more exotic features. She also had a thin tail, dark blue hair and horns coming out the top of her head unlike the Hoshiguma which came out of her forehead.

"That's fact you have to wonder that shows how idiotic you really are."

Another woman came out, this one being slightly shorter than the first. This one is wearing a vest but this time having it on her shoulders but not having her arms through it, something you would see in 70-90's delinquent in Japan or works based on that time. However unlike Hoshiguma and the blue-haired lady, her hair was something very similar to blonde and had an orange tint to it; however just like the others there were additional features. This time she had ears and a tail similar to a tiger, they looked quite fluffy.

"You should try to ignore them, they are always like this whenever they are together." Hoshiguma said.

"I can tell, this reminds me of two people I used to know. They would argue and yell like this all the time, I can't even remember how much sleep I lost from them." I said.

"I can only imagine the amount." She said, but her voice trailed off when she looked at me head to toe.

"Uh, where are your pants?" She continued.

I pointed to the girl who was now standing behind me.

"She was cold and hungry, so I gave her my clothes. I felt like she needed it alot more than me." I said.

"I see, hey Swire do you think you can buy some clothes for him?" Hoshiguma asked.

The tiger turned to her, then me, and back to her.

"Why should, I don't even k- wait you were the guy that got in my truck. Why were you even there!" She yelled.

I didn't even know what to say, so I did the smartest move. I shrugged my shoulders, the chad response.

"Hoshiguma, this is why you are always on missions with me. I say Swire buying him and the girl new clothes is an amazing idea, after all the tiger has some much money that she won't be missing it." The blue-haired woman said.

"Of course you would agree with her, you thick headed dragon, you are truly a piece of shit." Switre said.

"At least I'm not an animal that needs to be trained everyday so your rich ass doesn't get tossed around by the force." the blue-haired woman replied.

This back and forth continued for a while. Hoshiguma could watch as she was taking care of two younger siblings.

"Ok you two it's time to break it up, you are in front of people who aren't used to your petty fights." Hoshiguma said as she pulled the two away from each other.

While all this happened the girl stayed behind she was likely as confused as I am entertained.

"How about this, I bring these two to my place so they don't have to sleep outside. I can give some of my older clothes; they're baggy so it should be fine for Apollo to wear too." Hoshiguma suggested.

"Are you really fine with that, I mean you just met me today?" I asked.

"Sure am. Us Oni's are known for our intuition and I can tell you aren't planning to do any harm to anyone here." She said.

The world is truly a mysteriou thing, one moment I'm fighting a dear friend at the edge of time; next moment a girl is offering me her place while I'm in my underwear. I can already hear Merlin and Hermes laughing their asses off.

"It would dumb to deny it but would the girl be included, she needs help much more than me?" I asked.

"I thought that was a given." Hoshiguma said as she walked off to the parking lot.

I took the sign and followed her.

"We are coming too."

I turned around to see that both Swire and the blue haired woman followed behind me.

"That's fine." I replied.

However before we left I needed to do one last thing. I turned to the Sarkaz girl who remained quiet the whole time.

"I never asked for your name, have I? Well, you've probably already heard but the name is Apollo Kotemine; what's yours?" I asked softly.

She didn't waste a moment to reply.

"My name is Marth Azrael."