The sun slowly rose, and Riki had been up the whole night. He put out the fire with a bit of water to make sure the wood wasn’t too wet, so they would still have a fire that very night. Then he heard a noise, “Mmmhh.” Ajin mumbled, already feeling the cold seeping through his skin. “Good morning, master.” Riki nagged Ajin, who then turned over on his back. “Good morning, my backkkkkkk...” Ajin groaned.

“Are you alright, master?”

“I’ll be fine, thank you.” Ajin moaned, rubbing his eyes.

“I..” Riki stuttered, “Have news.” He finished.

“Oh yea?” Ajin mumbled, taking a big yawn, “What is it?”

“Akimatsu should’ve woken up at least an hour ago, and I’m sorry to say he is not up.”

“WHAT?” Ajin yelled, sitting up quickly and his hands bursting with fire as soon as they touched the grass beneath his hands. Riki splashed water on the grass that had slightly set fire and Akim, dazed stared at his hands. Slowly tears formed on his eyes, his hands soon became wet with water omitting from them. 

Riki watched him. “Fuck... Akimatsu, why the fuck did you do that?” Ajin cried, remembering Akimatsu pierced by the eternal sword. “Why did that monster do this?” Ajin questioned louder, “My family would be alive and Akimatsu would be ok.” Ajin closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Slowly his hands stopped watering, and he opened his eyes. He stared at Akimatsu and then looked up at Riki. “What do we need?” He asked.

“Well, I wrote it down,” Riki commented, making a scribe appear in front of himself. “What we’ll need, we’d need to collect Bud Pollens, but they only grow in winter, so we’ll need to wait till winter time, and they’re really hard to find, and there’s many of them, but we need specifically the one with yellow petals and blue-like beads hanging on the ends of the petals; we need scepter flowers, which will start to bloom in these coming 30 days; we need the one with a red inner flower, then green and lastly yellow, from the flower pattern, and we need a Mushroom clover, which we need to find the one with a red and a blue petal, they bloom in fall.” Riki finished, looking at Ajin, who was simply looking at the grass. “What about the rock?” Ajin asked, still staring at the grass, his hands clenched into fists. “We need to head to a desert for that, so, we’ll go around winter time, it’ll still be hot but less because of the winds.” Riki remarked, hoping he would take it well. “Alright.” Ajin agreed.

“But first, you should eat, master.”

“I still have some money that I always carry.”

“Well, you could try to use it to purchase food.”

“But what about Akimatsu?” Ajin asked, now looking at Akimatsu, who was still facing up. “You can carry him on your back.” Riki advised, after thinking and then replying. “I’m not against it, but wouldn’t it be suspicious if anyone sees him on my back?“ Ajin asked as he thought of how weird it’d be to be carrying another human being in broad daylight on his back. What would he say if asked about it? That he’s carrying his lifeless friend on his back? “No, many people here carry children on their backs.” Riki acknowledged, knowing well that it was a common practice in the town they’d head to. “He’s not my child?” Ajin said questionably, he can’t tell people that his friend is his child. “You can say he’s your sibling.” Riki proposed, trying to find an excuse to why Ajin would carry a human on his back. “Alright.” Ajin shrugged, giving up and just going with the flow. “We can’t leave him here because I have to go with you, so no one would keep watch of him.” Akin nodded in agreement. “May I enter you, master?” Riki asked Ajin, who then directly looked up at Riki. “Uh, sure.” Ajin approved surprised. 

Riki then floated forward, near Ajin’s chest, he floated in, and Riki was nowhere to be seen, meaning he’s inside Ajin. "Woah, that felt weird.” Ajin claimed, feeling dizzy and his chest getting heavy. “Yes, that’s how it feels, master, you will get used to it soon enough though.” Riki said from within Ajin that only Ajin could hear him. “Yes, of course.” Ajin contented, after feeling the dizziness settle, “Let’s go.” He finished. He got up, took off his outer robe, and after a few minutes was able to get Akimatsu on his back. He placed his outer robe on top of Akimatsu in order to cover him. “I feel strong!” Ajin said within himself, he felt stronger, and he felt like Akimatsu was lighter. “Yes, we’re sharing strength, master, so Akimatsu doesn’t get heavy for you.” Riki said to him, “Thank you, Riki.” Ajin said with a smile, happy that he’d be able to carry Akimatsu around, and not leave him, or struggle to carry him. He made sure to hold onto Akimatsu tight enough, and he slowly walked till he got to where he had been yesterday, the hill that showed the whole town. He looked over the town and saw people walking and carts all around. He slowly walked down the hill; while going down, he saw a marked path, and he turned to walk to it. People walked with barrels on their backs and women with their children by hand or on their arms or backs. A man led the group with a long stick, possibly resembling a scepter. Men chatted together and laughed, Ajin joined the back of it and followed them down the marked path. Once he got to the entrance of the town, there were two women standing there with polearms and in uniforms alike. One on the left side had on a pair of pants, while the other on the right had on a skirt. “Good day, Miss Aine.” Said the man with the scepter, “Good day, sir, back again, I see?” Asked the woman on the left, the one with pants. “I am, I brought more people who’d love to live here.” He answered,

“Lovely, pass on through then.”

“Thank you, you and Miss. Aine, have a good day.” Smiled the man waving to Miss Aine in pants and the lady in the skirt. The two women slammed down the bottom of their polearms twice, and the man started to walk. Everyone followed, including Ajin. He walked in further into the town and saw more people pushing carts, women and men yelling from their stands, “Come buy!” Or, “Best quality!” People walked talking or keeping to themselves, women reading scribes and a few more carrying children, men running, and men sitting on the sandy ground. Young women smiling and laughing, young men playfully punching each other, little children running, and some sitting on the sand. 

Ajin looked at a young man who had a stand of fruits, but was seated on the sand, he left the line he had followed in and walked to the stand. “Would fruit be good?” Ajin asked Riki within himself. “Yes, it won’t spoil in the heat for now.” Riki answered. Ajin looked at the young man who was playing with the sand with a stick and cleared his throat. “Ehem, how much does your fruit cost, sir?” Ajin asked, pointing to the fruit he wanted, “Ehhh,” The young man mumbled, looking at it and then back at Ajin, “Thee coins for each fruit, but since you’re a pretty lady, I’ll sell ya them for two coins each.” 

He smiled, looking at Ajin up and down and then half smirking. “Pretty lady?” It came to Ajin with surprise, but getting this deal would save him money. “Oh! Lovely, thank you, erm, I’ll take uh..” Ajin said, taking out his money and looking at his hand. He had 50 coins. “Umm, I’ll take 6.” Ajin said, “Alright, you got a basket, pretty lady?” The young man asked, “Oh, no, sorry, I didn’t know I’d need one.” Ajin said, embarrassed he had no way to carry the fruit. “I’ll give you this one, take it.” The young man said to Ajin, taking out a basket from beneath the stand and filling it up with the six fruits. “Thank you, sir!” Ajin beamed. “Yeah, you're welcome, pretty lady, I’ll see you around, right?”

“Umm, yes, sure.”

“Good day.”

“Likewise.” Ajin answered, meaningfully but halfheartedly. “I plan to never go there again.” He walked away from the stand. “Eat as you walk, master.” Riki advised, “Ah yes!” Ajin said out loud. “Oh, are you talking to me?” Inquired a young girl, dressed in light blue robes with gold jewelry and silver accessories. She had rather short cacao brown hair, a light blue ribbon tying her hair back, and light blue eyes. She had a fan over her face and bracelets crossed on her wrist. “Oh, no, sorry, miss!” Ajin answered, embarrassed he had spoken out loud and gotten attention now attracted to himself. “It’s fine.” Said the young girl with a smile, “I need to watch where I’m going.” He felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment. “Wowww, where did you get your clothes? They’re so lovely, a bit dirty, but I’ll assume it's from a hard day at work.” The young girl concluded, staring at Ajin’s robes, some places spotted with dirt from sleeping on the ground, and the sleeves a bit torn. "Oh, uh, I don’t know actually—I found them...?” Ajin stuttered, knowing well his seamstresses had made it for him, but he couldn’t mention his kingdom, his body, along with Akimatsu's, was missing. “I found them on the ground, I threw away my past pair of clothing.” Ajin finished. Hoping his excuse was believable, he didn’t feel like being questioned by a stranger he just suddenly started talking to. “Oh, what a shame. I would’ve loved to buy from where they came from, but why so dirty? What’s your job?” The young girl asked, now instead of looking at his robes, she was looking into his eyes and fanning herself with her fan. “I just moved here, I have no job to miss.” Ajin confessed, “Oh really,” The young girl said, no longer fanning herself and turning to her basket. “Well, I’m out here giving scribes to those who would like to work in my family’s paintshop. We craft paper, and we make paint and paint brushes. Here, have a scribe, it has where the workshop is if you’d like to work.”

“Oh, thank you, Miss, I’ll consider for sure.” Ajin remarked, taking the scribe from her.

“Good day.”

“Thank you, as well Miss.” Ajin said as the young girl turned and walked away.

Ajin went further into the town. “Food and a job opportunity already? That’s great!” Ajin happily exclaimed within himself, happy of his fortune after barely entering the town. "Indeed, master, you should really consider that job, because when winter arrives you’ll need appropriate clothing for it, we’ll travel a lot in winter time, and we can’t afford to lose that time, or else we’ll need to wait till next winter.” Riki cautioned, warning him and advising him to take the job. "Yes, you’re right.”