Chapter 23 | The Demon infront the mask

The next morning, Steven woke up on the floor. He rubbed his eyes and got up, walking towards the window and opening the curtains, he expected to see a bright sunny sky, but instead, he got a starry sky and a full moon.

"What a way to destroy the morning mood..." Steven thought. He noticed that the kitchen light was on and walked over to see who was using it. Chris was cooking breakfast in the kitchen.

Chris noticed Steven standing in the kitchen doorway and greeted him.

"Goodmorning Steven," Chris said. "Well, more like a good night."

"Good one," Steven rolled his eyes. "Wacha making?"

"Pancakes and sausages," Chris said. "By the wake, go wake the Shak up, He's still sleeping on the couch."

"Okay," Steven said walking away from the kitchen into the living room. There was Shak, sleeping on the couch with the puppy in his arms. He seemed to sleep with his mask on, in pajamas.

"What a weird man." Steven thought. "He acts like a child."

Steven walked up next to the couch and decided to think of a creative way to wake Shak up. Then, he thought of taking off his mask. Steven giggled a bit and then reached his hand towards the mask. But before he had the chance to touch it. Shak woke up.

"What are you doing child," Shak said in a grumpy voice. Steven's hand paused and he quickly placed it into his pocket.

"Uhm uh, well I was just going to wave my hand to see if you were awake! Haha!" Steven lied.

"Hmm... okay," Shak said in a skeptical tone. The puppy woke up and jumped off the couch, running around the living room. Which startled Steven.

"Why do you still carry that stray dog around?" Steven asked. "You haven't even given it a name.

"Hmm, maybe I'll call it Mark," Shak said. "Yeah, Mark."

Shak got up from the couch and grabbed his folded casual clothes, he then headed towards the bathroom, with the puppy following him. Closing the door behind him.

"Weird..." Steven thought. "What kind of guy goes to the bathroom with his dog."

"Anyways, where's Hiroshi?"

Steven walked back into the kitchen where Chris was finishing up making breakfast. He stood in the doorway and Chris noticed him.

"Did you wake up Shak?" Chris asked turning his head towards Steven.

"Yeah," Steven answered. "Anyways, do you know where Hiroshi went?"

"He woke up at the same time as me," Chris said. "He said he was going to patrol the town."

"Oh, that sounds like something he would do." Steven smiled. "Although I hope nothing bad happens to him."

"I think He's strong enough to handle demons," Chris said. "Well take a seat at the table, I finished right now."

"Uhm, okay," Steven said shrugging off his regard for Hiroshi. He took a seat at the four seated tables in the living room as Chris handed him his breakfast. Shak came out of the bathroom in his casual outfit with his sword sheathed and the puppy following behind him.

Shak took a seat at the table and Chris handed him his breakfast as well. Shak handed the puppy a sausage and it gladly accepted it.

"Goodboy Mark, good boy!" Shak exclaimed petting the puppy.

Chris and Steven gave him a strange look, but Shak shrugged it off as them being Jealous. In actuality, it was for taking in a stray puppy from the alleyway that he recently met, and somehow the puppy got attached to him.

After breakfast Shak headed towards the door, Steven stopped him asking where he was heading to.

"I'm going to go get some ice cream," Shak stated. "Wanna come?"

"YES!" Steven exclaimed. "But wait a minute."

Steven sprinted inside his room to look through his baggage, he pulled out a black sweater that he bought back in the prime district and put it on. He looked at himself in the mirror, and he thought he was looking pretty fresh. Before leaving his room, he grabbed a handful of syringes and shoved it in a pouch on his belt. He then hurried back to Shak and they both exited the building, alongside the puppy.

It felt weird and strange seeing the moon up in the morning. The only real way to tell time was by a clock. However, it still felt warm like the sun's rays were somehow heating things still up, although you couldn't see them, only feel them.

Steven and Shak with the puppy following approached an outdoor ice cream shop.

"Wacha want Stevie boy?" Shak asked Steven.

"Uhm, I guess a Vanilla cone," Steven answered with an unsure response.

"One chocolate cone please," Shak said asking for the opposite of what Steven asked. Steven was dumbfounded by this guy's stupidity; he didn't even bother to correct him at all. It was like he was doing it on purpose just to mock him.

"And what do you want Mark?" Shak said in a high-pitched voice, leaning down at the dog. "You want a chocolate cone?"

"THAT SHITS GOING TO KILL HIM, YOU MORON!" Steven thought, resisting the urge to yell it out loud and cause a scene. "HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE?!"

"One small kid-sized chocolate cone," Shak said to the cashier. Even the Cashier was confused.

"Is this man trying to kill his dog?" The cashier thought. "Ugh, I'll just serve it anyway, it's not like it's my problem."

The three received the cones, and the dog ate his up in an instant. Steven knew the demise of the dog that was going to come. And at this point, he couldn't comprehend that someone like Shak could exist.

"Welp, He's going to die soon." Steven thought, shedding a tear.

The two finished their ice cream and continued wandering throughout the streets. The citizens were all lively, even under the circumstances of the sun never rising. It was very amazing how these people adapted to their surroundings so quickly. Steven wondered if it ever bothered them. Well, they could always leave the town to look at the sun but, wouldn't you like to see the sun outside of your home?

"Stop," Shak said to Steven coming to a sudden halt with the puppy. What stood in front of them was a demon twice the size of them. It only had one eye in the middle of its face and four arms. Steven unsheathed his sword and so did Shak. The puppy stepped back, making a threatening growl.

"I'll handle it, you stay back," Shak said.

"Uhm, okay," Steven said sheathing his sword back in place.

"Watch and learn from the pros," Shak said before sprinting towards the demon at an insane speed. The Demon didn't have enough time to react, and Shak sprinted past him before stopping. He sheathed his sword, and the demon made a confused expression. The demon turned his neck to face Shak, but yellow blood splat out of his neck. And his head separated from his body; making him collapse on the floor, dying.

Shak looked like a total badass in Infront of Steven's eyes. The attack was so quick that Steven couldn't even see it. But Shak quickly broke character, grabbing his syringe and panickily heading towards the corpse of the demon. Steven hurried towards the demon as well, grabbing his syringes out of his pouch. The two stuck their all of their syringes in the corpse and extracted the yellow blood.

The dog stopped growling and returned to its normal state, and the two cleaned up the corpse. Although Steven began to wonder why Hiroshi didn't spot the demon, where was he off to?

In a small alleyway of a city, Hiroshi stood there silently, standing three meters away from a sewer drain, with his Axe in hand. His face and composure were calm but there was an unknown feeling of something lurking.

"I know your there," Hiroshi said. "Come out."

The sewer drained oozed yellow liquid, then violently rumbled, and finally, it busted open as a tall slim demon emerged.

The demon looked like a male who had a long tongue hanging from his mouth. He had noticeable dark bags under his eyes, and his eyes were very droopy. He had noticeable pale blue messy hair that was very short. He didn't wear a shirt but wore ripped baggy pants and old-looking sandles. Despite his very thin and malnourished body, he did have noticeable a six-pack.

"Hey, hey, want to play?" The demon asked Hiroshi with a smile on his face.