Moro headed to Calvin's family bakery. It was the building right next to his house. When he walked inside, he saw only a few customers. Despite being a small family business, they were quite popular in the city. It seemed like the kurega attack really hurt their business.
Calvin saw him and walked up to him. "Moro, I'm glad you came."
"Yeah, no problem. What do you need help with?"
"I handle the register, so if you could take care of serving and hosting tables, that would be great. And I would need Eternity in the back to help my mom and big sister with cooking."
"Sure."
Moro reached his hand out. A swirl of raw energy appeared in front of him, and Eternity appeared in front of him. She bowed to Moro. She then turned to Calvin. "Mr. Calvin, you need my help?"
"Yeah. Could you help make our food? You know how to make most of them, but any you don't know, my family can show you."
"I understand. I will help." she leaned over and gave Moro a kiss on the cheek before leaving with a smile on her face.
Moro held his cheeks in shock. Then, he smiled. "I'm glad she's in a better mood from this morning." Suddenly, Rui spawned himself as well. Moro looked over to him. "Huh, Rui, do you want to help too?"
He nodded.
"Ok then. Calvin, what could Rui do?"
"Oh, I suppose he could assist me with the register, as well as replace any of the display goods."
"Alright."
The 4 got to work. Moro hosted the people to their tables, took their orders, and cleaned the tables as they left. He greeted everyone with a smile, and many people left him tips. Meanwhile, Eternity was helping cook in the back. She was able to operate twice as fast as a normal human, which made her a huge asset in the back.
Moro came to the back where Eternity and Calvin's family were. "We're out of carrot cake and banana pudding."
"I'll start making more."
The day flew by, and Moro ended up having more fun than expected. Outside the shop, he leaned against the combat form of Yuzu and used her life as a beanbag. And he gave her lots of head pats as he did.
"Today was actually quite a bit of fun..." Moro looked down, slightly depressed. "If only Elk could be here too..."
Suddenly, Rui came up from behind him. He noticed his master was sad, so he brought him some Cream Puffs. And Moro smiled again. "Thanks, buddy."
Rui took a seat next to him. Yuzu had fallen asleep, and Rui decided to lean against her room. Moro and Rui looked up at the sky together.
"You know, Rui. I don't think I ever told you why I live the way I do, have I?"
Rui shook his head no.
"In truth, it's because it's not just my life I'm living. I believe that you die when your memory dies. The impact you make on people, whether good or bad, if great enough, will let them remember you. And those people will carry on your legacy. I've lost many people dear to me, so I carry on their dreams by fulfilling them myself. You've known me as an only child, but actually, before you came into my life, I had 5 siblings... They're all dead."
Rui looked with curiosity. He was first tamed by Moro a few years ago. He never even heard of him having other siblings.
"On of them had a dream to open their own restaurant when they got older. It was my older brother, Elk. I ended up mastering the ability to cook in order to carry his dreams with me. I then taught those skills to Eternity, and now she's surpassed me in the kitchen."
Rui scooted closer to Moro. He was interested to hear more.
"Sorry, I know this might all be a bit random. It's just... being in there made me feel like I was truly living the life Dari would have wanted. It felt... kind of nice-" Suddenly, Moro's face grew serious, and he shot up. He looked around him like someone was stalking him. Rui got on high alert as well.
Suddenly, an arrow made of fire was about to hit his Moro, but he didn't bother dodging. "Rui, use dissection." With just a glance, Rui diced the arrow into thousands of pieces. Rui then looked to the sky and noticed a blur moving. And with another glance, he knocked that blur out of the sky by cutting it. It fell to the ground, and it was a kudo. A tall, robed figure with dark skin and gold-pink ornate markings across their arms and hands. They wore flowing white and pink ceremonial robes tied with gold sashes. Their head was like a smooth white rock shaped like a horned animal skull with soft pink patterns and golden floral details. Pink tassels hung from the sides of the headpiece, and their long fingers ended in sharp golden claws.
"Oh, an Arriote. I've never seen one of those I person before."
"Hey, you!" screamed a voice in the distance. It was a woman who was short, had long green hair, and pink eyes. "You'll pay for the way you talked to Mistress Valkyrie!"
"Really?... You know what, fine. Let's dance. Rui, can you take that thing?"
Rui nodded.
"Alright then, Rui, Claw Stream, get in close."
Suddenly, Rui's hands were covered with giant glowing white claws and he rushed in to the arriote.
"Minamu, use Great Eco Arrow!"
The Arriote, named Minamu, fired an arrow at Rui's head, but he slashed the arrow out of the air with his claws. The arrow, in mid-air, grew behind him into two solar-powered laser beams, both of which Rui dispersed with dissection. Rui ran up to Minamu and went for a gut stab, but she dodged, and made his fist go through her bow. She turned around and swung her hands behind herself, slamming Rui to the ground and making his eyes shoot open in pain.
"Rui, lock the arriote in place at the legs!"
Rui, while on the ground, used his thighs to lock around one of Arriote's legs. Before she could struggle, Rui threw her to the ground, climbed over her, and put her into a jujitsu headlock. Rui tried to choke her out, but of course, it wasn't that simple.
"Minamu, Justice Grove!"
Suddenly, several thick vines burst forth from the ground and ripped Rui from Minamu's body. She used the vines to throw him against the ground and tried to slam the town on him.
"Dissection, again."
Now that Rui how a clear view of the vines, he used dissection to slice them up.
"Great, now use claw stream again."
He tried to stab her in the head with his claws, but Minamu caught them between her hands. She spun her body on the ground and swept his legs. As Rui was falling, Alice used her hands to push herself off the ground and kicked the man in the chest, sending him flying back. But he managed to stick the landing on the building and blitz forward towards Minamu. He struck and slashed her down the middle with her claws, which hit so hard, they knocked her out instantly.
The girl looked mortified. "N-no, that's impossible! How can your yellow-ranked Nekross beat my orange-ranked arriote?!"
"You idiot. Color rank only determines how strong and deadly and kudo is. It does nothing to account for their skills, experience, or their master's guidance. It's not uncommon for kudos to take out other kudos 1 or even 2 color ranks higher than themselves. How about you learn a thing or two about battling before you speak in my presence again. Oh, and tell the ice queen I said high."