Weapon of Choice

Chapter 4

"Are all demons nice like you guys?" I blurted out, accidentally cutting off Exodus mid-sentence. We all remained in the living room comfortably until I opened my mouth.

Exodus moved her gaze from Hazu to me, lifting herself off of the couch slowly. "You really wanna know the answer to that, kid?" I nodded a bit, rising off the couch after her. She let out a hefty sigh and started walking down the hall, signaling for me to follow her. Hazu made to follow after me, but she stopped him. "Stay here, Hazu. You already know this stuff. I don't need you getting pissed off for no reason."

Hazu scoffed and rolled his eyes, leaning to the side. "Seriously? You just told me you wanted me to take him under my wing."

"Is that a yes then?"

"If it makes it so that I can see your Board of Doom for the last time, then yes." Hazu agreed with a smirk, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. "I'll take on Meer." He quickly pointed at Ex. "But you're training him in combat and abilities. Not me."

"Deal." Ex rolled her eyes back and continued, gesturing for us to follow her once more. We strolled down a dimly lit set of stairs and into the basement. It was dark and hard to see, but I knew Hazu could see so I was just fine.

In the very back of the basement sat a cork board with a bunch of papers, headlines, and pictures of people I'd never seen before scattered across, pinned up by little black push-pins. There was one fluorescent lamp hanging above the table just below the board and it was the only light in the room. The surrounding boxes along the concrete walls had writing on them, but they were hard to make out. The floor was concrete as well, making the temperature drop at least five degrees once we reached the bottom step.

Hazu stretched his arms, removing the one from my shoulder and setting his hands behind his head with a yawn. "I forgot how cold and comfy it was down here." Shelves next to us jutted out from the wall. They were wooden and held various different weapons; swords of every type, knives, guns, anything you could imagine that could be used as a weapon effectively was there. Everything that wasn't a tank. One sword in particular caught my eye, shining silver against the light behind me. I reached a hand out to touch the blade, but it was caught in mid-air. I whipped my head around to see who had stopped me from grabbing the sword and was met with glowing golden eyes. "I wouldn't unless she says you can. Ex is very protective of her weaponry." A small smirk crossed his lips, and I blushed at our hands still holding one another. Thank god it was dark.

"Which one is he looking at?" Exodus had stopped in front of the table against the wall, not bothering to look back at us.

"Which one?" Hazu whispered, taking a step closer to me. My ears began to heat up due to our rather intimate proximity. I whipped back around, gently pulling my hand out of his and covering my cheeks with my palms before pointing at the sword again. Hazu leaned over my shoulder to get a closer look with a hum. "An 18th century liuyedao with iron fittings."

"Any engravings on it?"

"It says 'spoken with sword' in traditional Chinese lettering." He then repeated what it said in Chinese. A small gasp left my lips, and I allowed my gaze to flow back to Hazu's face. The fact that he knew all of this blew my mind. He was pretty smart for acting so... like him. Hazu took the opportunity of closeness to tease me again, lightly nudging his nose against mine before backing away with a smug look on his face.

Exodus had planted her hands on the table in front of her with a sigh. "Really, Meer?" She chuckled. "You really are the reincarnation of the agility demon." She nodded her head once then turned around to face me with an earnest look. "It belongs to you either way, you should take it. Especially if you want to take up fighting."

As gently as I could, I clasped the sword off of the shelf and weighed it in my hands. It was light and cool. It easily glided through the air with a practice swing. I smiled softly, mulling it over in my palms. Exodus and Hazu watched me closely, waiting for my response to the sword.

"I like it a lot, it's really nice and feels good to move around with."

Ex grinned. "So that's your choice then?"

"For what?" I tilted my head to the side, staring up at her.

"For the ring. If you'll fight, that is."

"That depends on what these fights even mean. I feel like nothing's been explained to me around the 'rings'."

Exodus shrugged, signaling for Hazu and I to join her at the table. "Okay, Hazu-sensei, take it away." She smirked to herself, backing up once the both of us arrived at the board.

A light-hearted glare was sent Ex's way before Hazu began. "The first thing you should know is that we don't fight for money, we fight for power or answers. Currency isn't a thing in Hell. We're demons. We typically take and get what we want."

"And what do you want, Hazu?" I looked up at him with a smile, authentically curious and wanting to know more about him.

"Questions later." Hazu gazed down at me with a small grin, winking. Experiencing a little bit of a let down feeling, I let it slide knowing he'd let me ask all the questions I wanted afterward. "When I started fighting, I wanted power. Still do." Hazu rolled his shoulders. "I've never wanted answers about who I was before I was a demon. If I'm in Hell, and I started with black hair, I probably did something horrible. There's no reason for me to wanna know about that." He sighed, changing the subject with haste and pointing to a picture of a man with long, white hair in a long-sleeve button up and black dress pants. "That's Shiru. He's basically the King of the Assholes over at Ring C and D. His little group of trainee's consists of Sama, Bael, Azazel, and Siren."

As Hazu pointed each person out when he said them outloud, Exodus cleared her throat and mumbled 'not true' under her breath.

"Siren's a terrible person, and you know it. You just don't wanna admit it to yourself." Hazu rolled his eyes and returned his gaze to me. "What do you think, Meer?"

I sat and thought for a second, pondering over the pictures on the board. "They look normal." I twiddled my fingers together along my waist.

Chuckling in response, Hazu took a step back and sighed. "Yeah, we all look pretty normal at first. The people I just listed off to you though," Hazu bit his lip in frustration. "They're anything but. They're truly evil demons, Meer. You should steer clear of them... please." He looked into my eyes when I nodded, nodding back at me.

"I'll fight then."

"Why?"

"For answers." Hazu gazed at me for a while, scanning me. "I want to know who I was before I fell."

A sigh escaped Hazu's lips after giving me a brief smile and heading toward the stairs. "You could die in the ring, Meer."

"I know," I shrugged, following him with Exodus close behind me. She handed me the matching scabbard and baldric for my sword with a grin. At least someone was excited for me to start training with them. "But if this is my only way of finding those answers, then I think I have to do it."

Ahead of me, Hazu let out another quiet sigh and waited for Ex and I to exit the basement before shutting and locking the door behind us. "It's your choice, Meer. I just hope it isn't the wrong one." He tossed the key to Exodus behind my back, sealing the basement away from outside eyes.