Disclaimer: Based on The Loud House created by Chris Savino and owned/published by Nickelodeon. I am not and do not claim to be the creator. Also inspired by Bleach created by Tite Kubo. An AU to the Loud House canon.

Chapter 4

Up for a Walk?

"Tonight," Stella squeaked. "Why tonight? Isn't that a little bit too soon?"

"Well, I kinda bought the contract already," Lincoln replied while scratching the back of his head.

"Contract? What does a contract have to do with anything." Stella turned her head to the side looking down at him.

"Let's grab our stuff first, then we can talk fully," Lincoln replied as he turned to walk back into the station, giving her a wave as she followed. Stella noticed that he was faster in his walk compared to when they were walking their walk earlier. He had a swagger that she never saw in him before. It reminded her of a captain taking command of a ship. Their confidence and energy are needed to captivate a crew surrounded by Lincoln. Was this the same guy who always sat in the back of class and never talked to anyone?

Lincoln grabbed his things that were on the table, avoiding both of their now sweating Styrofoam cups, and began shoving them underneath his arms. He kept dropping some of his binders back onto the table making him an unorganized mess. There he was. The awkward classmate that she has seen her whole life. Stella couldn't help but giggle at his situation causing Lincoln to freeze before slowing down while picking up all his items. She went to her booth side and grabbed her bag before setting it on the table and unzipping it.

"My offer still stands too, you know?" Stella said.

"What?" Lincoln looked at her still trying to get everything together.

"You can put your stuff in my backpack." Stella unzipped her backpack and reached for one of his binders. "If we're going to begin tonight, I want to do it as soon as possible. I can't have you wasting time trying to hold everything, so put your stuff in my backpack and we can begin." She punctuated her offer by putting the binder into her backpack.

Lincoln started as she continued to put his items into her backpack before he handed her one of his folders, slightly nodding at her. "Yeah, yeah that would work."

They continued to put his stuff in her backpack until it was filled with only the book of sketches Lincoln used was left out. Lincoln picked up the book while Stella grabbed her backpack, slinging it over her shoulder. She was ready to walk out until Lincoln grabbed the moist cup from the table causing a ripping sound with some paint coming off the table.

"Are you really gonna drink that?" Her face scrunched up at the thought of digesting anything from this store.

Lincoln looked at her before breaking out into a full chipped-tooth smile and let out a laugh. "Oh man, this will be your first experience of the benefits of this life." He moved the cup to his lips and took a nice long gulp of the mixture. Stella could hear the concoction move in the club sounding like the sloshing of wet leaves during a rainy day. She stiffened at the sound the liquid made while Lincoln was drinking it before he removed the cup from his lips with a wide grin still planted on his face. He then reached over the table, grabbed her drink, and handed it out to her as an offer.

Her eyes were glued to the cup in his hands. Inside was an orange sludge that looked to be pulsing. Bubbles were coming up to the top before they sank down to the bottom. Stella grimaced at the substance before looking up to see Lincoln's wide trusting eyes. "You can't be serious."

"I am dead serious."

Hesitantly she took the cup from him lightly lifting it towards her lips before allowing the slushie into her mouth. Suddenly her senses were overtaken by the sweetness that the substance had. It overwhelmed her senses causing her to close her eyes at the wonderful taste. Stella opened them to see a smirk on Lincoln's face.

"So, I guess it was good huh?"

Stella paused before a small smile formed on her face. "Alright, yeah. I've never had anything like that in my life."

A small laugh escaped Lincoln's lips, "Well you better get used to it. Flip makes the best miminolas."

"Miminolas?" Stella questioned as she began following Lincoln as he moved towards the door. He opened the door and allowed her to go first before leaving, giving a small wave to the elder man behind the counter. She could hear Flip mummer something, but she couldn't quite make it out.

"You know how every nation has its own food, well so do observers. Generations of observers have passed down recipes for us to enjoy. Miminolas are fruit drinks created by an observer a couple of centuries ago. It just happens that miminolas are Flip's specialty."

"Wait," Stella stopped their small walk holding her free hand up, "that man is an observer? He is supposed to kill those monsters?"

"First of all, we don't kill souls," he stated bluntly before taking a sip from his cup, "secondly, Flip is a former ranger. He stopped being a ranger before I was born, and now he works as a merchant selling contracts to anyone willing to pay."

"You mentioned contracts before. What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, here look," Lincoln moved the notebook under his arm that also held his drink. With his free hand, he took out the piece of paper he got from Flip and unfolded it. Stella looked over his shoulder to see a small creature that at first reminded her of a rabbit. It lacked the large ears, and its tail looked like a scorpion without a stinger.

"Contracts are a way for rangers to mark what souls we are tracking," Lincoln stated, "it notifies other rangers not to go after our target."

"Why do you have to do that?" Stella asked as they were walking away from the station. The nightlights guided their path as they walked down the empty road. In the sky, the moon was still bright and a few stars could be seen from behind the cloud. It was a still night as they walked down the road without a sound except for the squawking of a few birds.

Lincoln smiled a little bit as they walked. "Rangers get paid to return souls to their world."

"Wait, you get paid." Stella shook her head as they reached an intersection. "What was that about a responsibility?"

"It is a responsibility," Lincoln said defensively as they crossed, "the payment is a way to encourage rangers to target larger creatures. It is also a way to notify rookie rangers about how dangerous the creatures are. Here look here," he pointed at the top of the piece of paper that said 'level 3.'

"The higher the means the soul is more dangerous which causes inexperienced rangers to leave higher level souls to those more experienced. However, it was found that many would only go for lower-level souls because it was safer meaning there were stronger souls freely roaming around causing havoc and eventually fading away. Soon, there were endangered souls, some even went extinct."

Stella noticed his face fell while he was talking. "So what happened?" Stella asked.

"Eventually a council was established of some of the top rangers. They created rules that forced rangers to go for higher-level souls," Lincoln replied. "However, it created unintended results. Many rangers quit after being forced to track stronger souls. They felt that the council was risking their lives. Their policy only ended up making them unhappy with their tasks. The council realized that forcing people to do a task without any incentive only caused them to quit." He looked around and broke out into a small smile, "Oh, we're almost there."

Thank you all for reading.

I am open to comments, questions, and critiques. Everything you say is greatly appreciated since it helps me grow as a first-time writer.

If you have some suggestions for future chapters, please post some ideas that will be taken into consideration. There is a loose plan for this with future plotlines, but the plan can change if I feel like it. Some of the chapters could be filler or could be adapted into the main story. I will try to give credit to people who change some parts of the story.

Again thank you for reading.