He could have been doing something else right about now. He could have been resting in a comfortable palace, stretching his body out on a soft and magnificent sofa in a lounge area of sorts. He could have been at some strip club, getting drunk and taking out women for a quick romp at a hotel. He could have even been in a small little shed where he could just get high and wasted, no care in the world of anybody figuring out what he was up to. He could be out there and living his life like an actual normal member of society. Too bad for Giriko that he was anything but normal, and neither was the world that he so miserably lived in.
Instead of living out his days indulging in whatever pleasures he so desperately desired, he lived the life of a man on the run. Him and his partner, Mosquito. The downfall of Arachnophobia left both men demoralized, aimless in their seemingly endless trek through the world and surviving off of any valuable resource they could get their hands on, no matter how minuscule and insignificant it would end up in the long run. One would think that both of them would have gone their separate ways by now, but the simple truth of the matter was that a situation like their own practically demanded safety in numbers. For as polar opposites as they were, they didn't deny that their respective abilities had their benefits, and even if they didn't, spending more than a year of survival together would have made them subconsciously admit it by now. Not that the admission did anything to halt or slow down their arguments.
"We should probably get to coming up with a goal for ourselves by now," Giriko said, walking behind his smaller, fancier partner. "I'm getting tired of this bullshit, moving from place to place and doing whatever we can to stay safe. My feet never get a single damn moment to rest these days."
Despite the calm tone of his partner's voice, Mosquito looked back with irritation. "Well, I seriously hope you managed to think of one yourself, because I sure as hell haven't come up with anything that can help us right now."
Giriko couldn't help rolling his eyes. "Yeah right, as if you could ever come up with an idea to save your own life," He smugly shot back. "Wouldn't expect the person who was pretty much Arachne's precious little dog to be able to think well for themselves." He was aware that he was starting to push Mosquito's button hard, yet he didn't even try to care. He never really did.
"Oh, so I'm her precious little dog now, eh?" Mosquito knew the perfect counter. "If I remember correctly, you were the one that would always act like a good little boy whenever she dominated over you. Every single rebellious shout from that shark mouth of yours would always be followed by you immediately behaving yourself like a child." Giriko closed his eyes and crossed his arms, his head to his left.
"At least I tried to think for myself. If I didn't know any better, I would think you were a robot with how loyal you were to that bitch."
With his closed eyes, Giriko didn't seem to notice the seething rage across Mosquito's face. He only looked back slightly with a single eye open, which immediately led to both eyes widening like saucers as he got a split second look at Mosquito's much beefier transformed body. The moment his eyes widened, to his everlasting misfortune, he was knocked back a considerable length thanks to a punch so hard he could swear he physically felt his insides spring loose and malfunction. Despite all this however, he only really spat out a sharp tooth as he struggled a small amount to get up. There was a reason why he stayed in his current body for so long after all.
"I dare you to insult Lady Arachne like that again, you filthy barbarian." The venom in Mosquito's voice could almost be felt by Giriko. Nevertheless, he got up and wiped some blood from his broken lip, meeting his partner's intense and cold gaze with fiery malicious eyes.
"You think you scare me, you son of a bitch?" He said, his sharp teeth forming an excited grin. Despite his situation, he had been itching for a good fight for a while now. "Little Miss Spider Slut is dead, and if you want to see a true barbarian right now, why don't we go and get you a mirror?"
Mosquito let out a mighty roar as he charged and tackled Giriko, the latter punching and clawing as he held the hulking man in his grasp. Through it all, they ravaged every part of the forest in their wild fight. Trees were chopped up as Giriko swung his saw leg in random directions, trying his damndest to hit Mosquito. Bushes and shrubs were laid to waste, a glaring dirt path being left behind Mosquito's rampage. What was once a normal flourishing forest area was now reduced to a shredded, punctured, eviscerated wasteland, only getting purged even further as the two freaks of nature continued their onslaught on each other. After a while, it ended with Mosquito pinning down the saw man, both of them furiously trying to choke each other.
"J-Just give up…" Giriko managed to get out through his tight throat. "You c-cannot stop me, you s-son of a bitch…"
"D-Don't t-think about it…" Replied Mosquito in equal pain. "Either you d-die, or I die…"
"Is there a problem, gentlemen?"
Both combatants stopped strangling each other and looked up at the owner of the voice. It was a young man with mostly smooth shoulder-length black hair, straight at the front with small curls at the back tips. His eyes were an equally dark shade as his hair and his outfit, of which it consisted of a white long-sleeved shirt covered in a black vest with various markings and designs on it. His pants and shoes were completely pitch black, and behind him was a comfy looking wooden cabin, a slow trail of smoke shooting up from the chimney. In Giriko's opinion, he looked like someone that he would see at a church, something that disgusted him as it reminded him of that damn priest Death Scythe from the DWMA that he lost to three times in a row during his Arachnophobia days. Without wasting any more time, Giriko socked Mosquito in the jaw and sent him flying to his side.
"What's it to you, jackass?" Giriko responded, getting off the floor and dusting himself off. "Who the hell are you supposed to be anyway? Some sort of hermit zealot or something?"
"Apologies if I offended you two," the man said, bowing down politely. "I merely wanted to know if you two were doing okay. You may call me Gopher."
"Gopher, eh?" Said Mosquito as he reverted back to his regular form. "Well, forgive my partner's crude personality. He doesn't like anybody."
"Fuck off Mosquito." Giriko sent him a middle finger on top of that insult.
"Like I said, doesn't like anybody," confirmed the now smaller Mosquito. "Anyway, I suppose we should apologize for causing a ruckus around your cabin."
Gopher looked around at the damage within his sight, a smile slowly forming on his face as he looked back at the two dysfunctional individuals before him. "Actually, there really is no need, good sir. In fact, I believe I could use your help."
That part caught the attention of both men. They looked at each other in utter confusion before looking back at Gopher.
"What kind of help?"
Gopher's face brightened considerably, his small smile transforming into a confident grin. "Have you ever heard of this man named Noah?"
"Noah?" Stein asked, sitting on the other side of a table at Deathbucks with Spirit back in Death City. "Doesn't ring a bell, no."
"I'm a little surprised Lord Death hasn't told you about him yet," Spirit said, taking a sip of his coffee. "Apparently he was one of the old ones. I'm sure you must at least know of them."
"Of course I do," Stein confirmed. "They were made up of people like Lord Death, Asura, Eibon, and some others. Although, none of the books I read up on them mentioned anything about a 'Noah'."
"He was a traitor that fell to the madness and that's about all I know," said the Death Scythe. "Lord Death didn't seem to want to talk about him all that much, even though he seemed to be in deep thought."
"Really now?" Stein spoke casually with a frown. "That's strange. Given that we knew a fair bit about the Kishin, I would assume that Lord Death would have no issue telling us about this person. Must have been real special for him not to go into detail."
"Not to speak ill of him, but this isn't the first time that Lord Death has kept secrets from us," Spirit said, looking down at the brown liquid within the paper cup. "We didn't know that the entire school could turn itself into a giant mech, or that this was something Eibon had seemingly created. Only he knew until he finally decided to use it."
"Still, at the very least we knew that Eibon existed," Stein said as he took his own sip. "There must be something that Lord Death is hiding from us. Perhaps something personal, as farfetched as it may seem?"
"Lord Death doesn't really strike me as having a ton of personal business going on, besides maybe with whatever has to do with Kid," Spirit admitted, head now resting on his palm and looking out the window. "Although, that does bring to mind another question."
Stein raised a curious eyebrow. "And what would that be?"
Spirit's eyes darted back at the doctor. "Say that whatever Lord Death is hiding is actually personal business. Do you think that he has more secrets that he's not telling us for that exact same reason? About people like Asura, Eibon, or something else?"
Stein took another sip and thought about it for a moment. For as long as he has lived, Lord Death was a being who had seen a lot. It was only natural that he would see many things that he would rather keep buried. Still, Lord Death was anything but a natural being, for even if he showed emotion, Stein always felt like it was a facade of sorts, and he couldn't wrap his head around the possibility the grim reaper himself would take anything personally. He supposed that he was looking at things a bit too logically, nobody can ever understand something fully without thinking a little outside the box. Outside the realm of logic. Maybe he would have to actually ask this to the reaper himself, assuming of course he would allow it. Unnatural being or not, he never really felt like prying if it wasn't for an enemy interrogation or something similar.
"I suppose only Lord Death knows about this," Stein finally answered. "We can't be certain unless we actually ask him straight-up."
"You're actually planning on asking him?" Spirit asked, taken off guard.
"I don't plan to get into specifics. Only ask him about if something resonates with him on a personal level."
"And you don't think that he will take offense towards that?"
"Strange as he may be, Lord Death seems understanding enough."
Spirit finished up his coffee. "Guess all we can do is pray for the best."
Stein followed suit. "I suppose. We'll just have to see for ourselves."
As they made their way outside, Spirit spoke one last time. "We may not know the full story, but I say we must be ready for anything if this 'Noah' decides to stop the peace we are currently experiencing."
"Right." Stein said simply with a nod as both men parted ways.
"So, what do you say gentlemen?" Gopher said with a hopeful expression, having just finished explaining Noah's history and his cause to the former Arachnophobia members.
The duo stood in silence for a second before answering. "We're in." Gopher could not have been more pleased.