The World Should Just Burn

“Why the sour face?” A man in his forties said to the group of 3 — especially to Bitter, being a little bit under the weather for a reason he sure is nothing.

“Todachi…” Bitter glances to the uncaring face of his friend, “After Yuzu-chan chant her magic words, she smashes the cake that I bought and shoves it down her throat.” He fiddles around the computer, playing with the trackpad, “With no magic, or sugar — I am nothing,”

“Act like your age, Bitter.” Todachi said with a hint of disappointment, “and you two? What’s going on with you again?”

“…Lemon smacked me,” Lime mumbles

“I wouldn’t, if you didn’t throw your pancake at me.” Lemon refutes

“I wouldn’t, if you didn’t throw all your damn coffee tissues at my face!” Lime tone gets aggressive.

“I wouldn’t, if you didn’t picked on me all day!”

“Have you heard about toxic masculinity? Because this is actually it!”

“You and your bullshit arguments! You just shove ‘toxic masculinity’ every time you lose an argument!”

“Alright, alright, enough!” Todachi massages his forehead, “Let’s just get started with today’s brief. move will you?” Todachi pushes Lemon so he would move to the side of the sofa, as he takes his place.

“You should have a word with them after this, Bitter.” Said Todachi as he pulls his documents out of his old briefcase

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry. I’m being a good little daddy for them.” Bitter snorts.

Todachi clears his throat. His face reverts to the ‘serious business’ face.

“Firstly, on behalf of the SCF, we commended the Kuzumi Agency for the successful mission to apprehend the individual Cham of The Ark.”

“Here we go with the formality…” Lemon sneered, dismissed by Todachi.

“The SCF determines Kuzumi Agency will be compensated as per the contract. The neutralisation of a Domini-level individual will be 550,000 yen.”

“Hey now, are you serious?” Bitter interrupted, “We didn’t just apprehend a ‘Domini-level individual’. We catch Cham of The Ark — one of the known leaders from ‘The Ark’.”

“I know you would say that.” Todachi sighs, “I’ve discussed with the department — we agreed to bump up the payout for an extra 20%”

“Are you kidding me? 20%? You know we could do even better if we choose to go freelance, you know?”

“You are getting intel from our database, Bitter. That is the only reason why your agency thrive than the other agency. The reason why jobs keep coming to your way when you had your office in the middle of a bloody maid cafe.”

“C’mon now, friendo. Can’t you just give me — Bitter —a good friend of yours for 15 years plus a little bit more bump?”

“22%” Todachi replies short.

“Well, I guess this is it.” Bitter shrugged. “A good business has always been an end to a good friendship…”

“25%” said Todachi with still a flat expression on his face.

“30% and we call it a day.”

“Done.” Todachi extends his hands, which Bitter swiftly shakes for a good split second.

“What a slimy guy. Racking all that money that he definitely not spend on his beloved.” Lime whispered underneath her breath.

“Now to the next topic,” Todachi wastes no time, “We would like to request further assistance regarding the case for Cham.”

“Oh? and I thought you’re finally dropping another Sera case to us. For a Domini, you sure put a lot of attention,”

“Sera cases are handled by the SCF itself, considering the lethality of each individual. Only unmanageable case are usually outsourced to agencies.” Todachi explained, “Besides, this is a special case — as we all know. Cham is one of the officers in the now uprising Ark terror organisation.”

A cup of hot milk served on top of Todachi table, to which he thanked the twintail maid. Yuzu nods, as she goes on her way — gazing sharply at Bitter.

“We’ve heard.” Bitter said, feeling the hot gaze on him, “So you want us to stand guard as you interrogate her?”

“No.” Todachi sipped his milk, “I want you to be the interrogator”

Bitter fell silent, “…I don’t do that anymore, Todachi.”

“With due respect, the SCF has been but generous enough to the three of you.” Todachi holds the mug with both of his hands, feeling the warmth seethe through his cold hands. His eyes focus on the green haired girl, “Especially you, Lime.”

“Stop that. Just because she’s special, doesn’t mean you have the power to pressure us to do whatever you — whatever the SCF wants to do.”

“Or do the SCF, Bitter?”

“She’s just 20 years old.”

“The SCF doesn’t care about mundane details. Even if you throw all the sad stories to us — even though the two of you are both Arkus. She is still a Princi — a powered.

The atmosphere in the room changed in a swift second. Everyone can sense Lime gets quieter than she is minutes ago. And everyone can sense a steaming head ready to pounce on the stone-cold man next to him.

“What a dumb name to call the normal.” Lemon sneered, rolling his eyes.

“Will it be much better to call you an ‘abnormal Arkus’, Lemon?”

“What was that?”

The tension gets higher.

“You should be able to control your temper more, now that you’re a responsible adult. Otherwise, your parents wouldn’t be able to rest well.”

“The f—!“

“Enough.” Bitter breaks the intensity, “Back down, Lemon.”

The rage within Lemon is one that he never felt before, but with much of his hesitance, he complies to Bitter’s command.

“We’ll do it… on one condition.”

“I’m listening.”

Bitter’s hands tremble. He is biting his lips down, trying to hold whatever has been boiling on his gut. Lime and Lemon watches with anticipation. Never has they seen Bitter so troubled.

“We’ll do it…if you agree that you’ll pay us special rates.”

Suddenly, an urge to smack Bitter on the face rises from the siblings. Todachi sighs.

“You want to discuss it outside?”

“Like always”

The both of them stands up. Todachi puts his hands in his pocket, grabbing a box of cigarettes.

“Wait here, won’t be long.” Said Bitter.

The sibling nod slightly. The ringing bells can be heard as the both of them leave the premise, followed by shouts of ‘thank you’. Now it’s just the two of them, with an atmosphere as joyous as a cemetery.

“Man, all this talking gets me hungry again.” Lime waved her hands to Yuzu, whom with speed of lighting ready to take her order, “I’ll get another of what I had before.”

“Choose one. You had enough sugar today.” Yuzu scolds

“Ugh. I’ll have the strawberry one then.”

Yuzu nods as she jotted down the order, “Don’t be depressed for too long, Lime. Or you could become an asshole like your bro here.” Yuzu smiles, as she ran to the kitchen.

“Hey, what was the correlation between that?” Lemon complained, but fall on deaf ears. He sighs, as he watches his sister slumped on the table.

“You okay?” He asked.

“…Of course.” Lime answered, “I just hate the fact I have to see that gorilla girl again,”

“Yeah… me too.” Lemon sighs, as he stared at the decorated ceiling, full of unnecessary paints and carvings. He contemplates of his parents, and the fated incident.

“…There will be no more Ordained One again, Lime. I promise you that.”

“I don’t care about that as well, really.” Lime sighs, as she stares to the same ceiling as her brother. “I just wanted to live without being…set apart from the others.”

“…Yeah, I know.” Sigh after sigh coming from his breath, as his wish coming out from his mouth as well —