A Kind Silence

Dominic woke up on a black velvet couch, looking up at a white ceiling. So, this was the afterlife? He tried getting off the couch, and something crashed behind him. He looked behind him, and some kind of blue basin fell over. Dominic looked at the plastic tube, tracing it's origin point to his crotch. Not thinking much of it, he disconnected it from its place and pulled his underwear up. He looked towards the window, noticing that the tree on the top of the hill was also in the afterlife, bathed in what seemed to be an evening sun. Shin probably tested his skeletons power on it, the jackass. But whatever, he got to look at it for a quick eternity until the others got here.

But now, the question of what to do? It would be at least fifty years until the other three got here, hopefully. Well, no time like the present, or however time worked here. He decided to turn around and find out what awaited him.

Which just so happened to be Ayana.

"Wait, you're dead?" Dominic screamed.

"You're alive!?" Ayana yelled back.

"Wait a minute, I am!" Dominic yelled to nobody, realising that geographic features don't have lifespans, probably. "Holy crap!"

Ayana suddenly embraced him, and he hugged her for a second. It felt pretty good. Ayana let go after a few seconds, checking her skirt for any traces of anything odd, and let out a small sigh of relief when nothing was there.

"Oh, you actually are alive."

Dominic looked towards the doorway, where Ulrich was waiting with a pile of clothes in his hands, giving him a quick nod as he passed.

"How ya been, man?" He asked.

"Decent. How are my wounds looking?"

"Better than when we first got you on that couch." Ulrich smiled, pointing to the blood-soaked mess that was Ayana's old couch.

"Oh, sorry about that." Dominic said. "How much was that?"

"Beats me, it was handed down a couple generations." Ayana responded.

"Wait, what?" Dominic replied, terrified.

"Relax, the two things I hate the most are my brother and that couch."

"Oh, cool. So, what's the status on the other five?"

"Well, they can't exactly do anything. We have one of the gems, and I'm guessing they're looking for the last one in Kenya." Ayana sighed calmly. "So, we're waiting for you to recover, and Lainey is looking for that demon girl."

"I mean, it's been what, a day? That demon lady will find us in like, a couple hours." Dominic replied calmly, fixing his hair back into his spikes.

"You gonna tell him?" Ayana asked.

"You've…been out for three days." Ulrich mumbled quickly.

"Excuse me?" Dominic asked calmly, before the realization hit him. "Wait, three days?!"

"Yeah…" Ulrich hesitated, scratching his head. "You were hit pretty bad."

Dominic stood in place for a second. He considered screaming about this setback, but decided not to, as nothing was really lost, aside from probably a lot of blood, and maybe a couple bodily functions. But instead of focusing on that, he took the clothes out of Ulrich's hands.

"Hey, Ulrich. Your hands."

"What about em?" Ulrich asked, looking at the skin on his hand.

"Where are the gloves?"

"Oh, that?" Ulrich replied. "Threw 'em in a river. Besides, I'm pretty sure you saw me without them, anyway."

"Why are they in a river?"

Ulrich pointed towards the basin and the funnel. "Don’t need em. Besides, someone had to set up the basins, and that ended up being me.”

"Could you not wash the gloves?"

"Eh, they were cursed artifacts I didn't need. I was gonna throw them out anyway."

"And what about the fire?"

Ulrich made a small flame come out of his pinky finger, with a satisfied smile on his face. "Not an issue."

"Hell yeah, man!" Dominic yelled, fist bumping him. "So, you fighting the ice lady?"

"Fighting? Like in Kenya? Yeah, I'll probably take her on. What about you?"

"Oh, I'm fighting Bart. One final clash to determine ultimate victory, you know?"

"Uh, sure?" Ulrich replied. "Ayana, you cool with fighting Gene?"

"The blonde one? Sure."

"And then Lainey fights Sapphire?" Dominic asked.

"Yeah." Ulrich said, nodding. "She'll go easy on her."

"Speaking of Lainey, where is she?" Ayana asked. "It's been what, four hours?"

And just as she said that, she appeared through the door.

"Sup?" She said, making the devil horn symbol with her right hand as she walked in.

And after her, a new girl. She had a black hoodie with a badly drawn cartoon rabbit with X's over its eyes in neon blue and pink, alongside ripped the same type of ripped jeans Lainey had, only red, and a crimson beanie covering her long black hair, draping over her tanned skin.

"She new?" Dominic asked.

"Oh, right?" The girl replied. She shut her eyes, and her skin turned light purple, her hair turned silver and when she opened her eyes, they were black with neon green pupils.

"We doing okay?" She asked.

"Pretty good!" Dominic yelled back.

"Anything happen while I was relocating?"

"Nothing in particular." Dominic replied confidently, crossing his arms and standing up straight.

"He got stabbed a bunch. But he seems good to go." Ulrich said calmly, only for Zeb to try inspecting him.

"Uh, how are your wounds? Any permanent damage?"

"Lady, I got up ten minutes ago." Dominic replied, stepping back.

"Eh, you seem like the kind of dude to get shirtless drunk. So what do you say?" Lainey yelled out, holding up two six-packs of beers.

"Yeah, I'm not old enough to drink." Ayana sighed. "Actually, I'm pretty sure it's just you two who can."

"Well, I doubt you're old enough to kill a man, yet here we are." Lainey replied, tossing her a beer.

"Excuse me, what about the child? You said this could wait until she went to bed." Zeb yelled at her.

"Oh yeah." Lainey sighed, opening a beer with one hand. "We couldn't find a place for the kid."

"So…?" Ulrich asked.

"I guess I'm a mom now. Or big sister, or whatever." Lainey said, moving her free hand in a circular motion. "Meet Yuna Bryce. or Momota. Whatever she wants."

And then, Yuna came into the room, still as trembly as ever.

"H-Hello." The words struggled to come out.

"Does she…speak English?" Ayana asked, her fingers on her forehead.

"Relax, I know a Japanese guy, he'll teach her. I got this figured out." Lainey said, snapping her fingers and sipping her beer. "Anyway, you got soda or something?"

"I'll check the fridge." Ayana said. "Dominic, come with me."

"Huh? Uh, sure."

Once at the fridge, Ayana found a large soda bottle, about three quarters empty and there as long as she could remember. But it was good for another three weeks, so it was fine.

"So, what you need me for?" Dominic asked, unopened beer in hand.

Ayana handed him a glass with soda in it. "Hand this to her and meet me at the top of the hill."

Dominic did as instructed, handing Yuna her soda and heading out the back door of the house.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Ulrich asked from the doorway.

"Ayana asked me to meet her on the top of the hill."

"Mind if I come with?" Ulrich asked, already ignoring Dominic's answer and walking through the door.

Ayana was sitting against the tree, looking at the moon while sipping her beer. She saw Dominic and waved, and then turned around when she saw Ulrich next to him.

"What is he doing?"

"Remembering the last time you invited somebody up here." Ulrich replied, glaring at her.

"He's not a mage, dumbass."

Ulrich pointed at his eyes, and then her, before walking backwards to the house.

"What was that?" Dominic questioned.

"Nothing of note, really." Ayana replied slightly faster than usual. "Anyway, how's the shirt?"

"My shirt?" Dominic whispered, before remembering the incident and looking at his shoulder. "Oh, right."

"I couldn't find the one with the design stitched on, so…I hope that can do."

"Oh, right. Yeah, it makes sense that you couldn't find the shirt, somebody made it for me."

"Damn, really?"

"Yeah, a couple years ago. Friend of mine wanted to get into sewing, made me that shirt. Actually, where is that, anyway?"

A few seconds passed. "I…threw it out." Ayana let out.

"Wait, what?" Dominic screamed, grabbing her shoulders.

"Okay, it's in the trash outside, it's probably still there!"

After a few minutes of rummaging through Ayana's bin at the front of the house and fishing out the shirt, Dominic went back to the side of the hill, where Ayana let out a small sigh of relief.

"So, you getting it fixed?" Ayana asked, smiling.

"Uh, yeah…I don't think I can." Dominic replied, his look of relief dropping.

"Oh, something happen between you two?" Ayana asked.

"No…she…died."

Ayana went silent for a few seconds, before "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Left her lips.

"Nah, it's…fine. I was an idiot fifteen-year-old, so…I guess I couldn't see it coming."

"I suppose." Ayana responded quietly, trying not to remember what she was doing at fifteen.

"And, hey. you've killed people before, right?" Dominic asked cautiously.

"Yeah." Ayana replied slowly.

“Could you teach me how to do that?” Dominic asked casually.

“Excuse me?” Ayana replied.

“I think I could do it if I wanted. A real class assassin in the future, if you catch my drift. You know, seeing how easily I killed your ex or whatever.”

“Look Dominic, I’m done killing people. Now that I’m out, I’m just gonna try get into college and live a normal life. Maybe try being a light novel author or something.”

“But you can teach me your moves beforehand, right?”

“Dominic, no! You don’t even know what it means to kill!”

“Yeah I do!” Dominic yelled, with such conviction that Ayana moved back a bit.

"Excuse me?" Ayana asked.

"Look." Dominic sighed. "Have you ever heard of the redface murders?"

"I…have."

"Well, that was me."

"You killed more people?" Ayana asked, the tone of her voice not changing. It wasn't that surprising, considering that she saw him kill somebody. “Wait, wasn’t that the bloodiest murder of the last ten years over there?”

“Yep.” Dominic sighed.

“Look, I'm not in a place to judge, as long as you can explain why you did it.” Ayana asked, her eyes darting back to her house.

“Yeah, I can hopefully justify it.” Dominic replied, taking a sip of his beer.

"To put it briefly, people at my school put her through…a lot of shit. She watched a lot of anime and was into girls. So, people shit on her. A lot. And I couldn't do much against the six-foot walls of meat that were dating the bitchy girls. So, she ended up stabbing herself. Her brother told me once I tried picking her up for school, and I got to see the body."

"And…you killed people."

"She left a note deatailing the girls that drove her to it. I told the school everything, and all that happened were a bunch of posters were put up and some jackass came in to say bullying was bad. So, I took out my axe, found where the girls went to smoke after school, and killed all three of them."

"And you got away with it?"

"My dad leaves in the house a lot. I burned the clothes I was wearing, and then got him to make up some story about how I was with him or have him face the time for years of child neglect."

"Not bad." Ayana nodded.

"And the thing was…I didn't feel bad about it. I stopped going to school for a week and sat in my room, waiting for the regret to hit me. And it never happened. And so, I decided to become an assassin."

"Wait, what?" Ayana interrupted. "No offense, but I don't think you'd make for a great assassin. Especially with that guy who killed the king of England running around."

"Hey, I helped with that."

Ayana shot up. "That was you?"

"Well, it was that tuxedo guy who did it, but I got a few hits in."

"Right, the hot British guy did it."

"Hold on, I'm way hotter than him!" Dominic yelled. "And British-er, Ya wee bitch! Wait, wrong one."

"Oh right, that reminds me of why I invited you." Ayana sighed.

"Wait, do you like me?" Dominic asked.

Ayana starting babbling something incomprehensible into her can, before putting her hands on her face and swinging her legs, before her body went limp.

"I have no idea."

"You have no idea?" Dominic asked.

"Look, you seem cool. Really cool. But considering I had romance forced on me since I was six, I have no idea how this actually works."

"Hey, I landed an axe into the last few girls I talked to, so I guess I'm on the same page."

"So, what do we do?"

"I mean, you could move in with me." Dominic whispered.

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah. It's just me and my dad, and he's only around for like, two months, tops."

"Well, I guess the police will start hunting me down at some point…so...why not?"

"Hey, nice." Dominic smiled. "So...what now?"

"I guess we head back in?" Ayana replied, taking a final sip of her beer and throwing it at the top of the tree.

"As long as we're on good terms, the can stays. Sound good?" She asked with a smile before walking down the hill.

"Hella." Dominic replied quietly, throwing his own empty can up before joining her down the hillside. "See you at the house?"

"Yeah...it's my house." Ayana said from in front of him, not really saying anything.

Just a mutual, kind silence.