The Beast Is The Third Wheel

"Food! Hahaha! So much food!" Ikky pushed backwards, reclining his chair as he lifted a bowl of curry happily into the air.

"Wait! This isn't poisoned, is it?" He squinted his eyes at the two other people in the restaurant while they stood dumbstruck at a corner of the room.

Charlotte and Rick looked at eachother, blinking their eyes with question.

"Ah who cares! No poison in hell was potent enough to take me down, what more could you softies do?"

Ignoring the spoon on the table, he chugged down the curry and then went for another plate.

Rick stretched his hand out at Ikky, looking like he was about to say something. But with the grip Charlotte had on his shoulder, he could only slump his shoulder and watch as Ikky devoured their meal.

"I'll make yours later, Patrick. Let him have this." Charlotte gave him a strange smile.

Her eyes looked like it had some emotions of empathy as she peered seemingly into Ikky's tattered soul. Rick could understand why she was making that face... even though his hunger was making him act like a child.

A hoarse cough suddenly erupted throughout the room.

"Ah! Water! Don't forget to drink water!" Charlotte yelled as she ran over to the white haired boy who was choking on his own food.

Rick cackled as he watched Arley squeeze the piece of bread out of Ikky's throat and then cringed as he saw Ikky putting back the food in his mouth.

"Geez kid, are you a pig or something?" Rick stole a cupcake from the show-glass kitchen counter and went over to meet the two.

"Woah, what kinda meat is this?" Ikky asked, holding up a piece of orange meat.

He had seen many other strange food from what he had just bitten down. Some came in irregular colours and shapes, yet they were still arranged neatly and made presentable; appetising even. Nevertheless, the main information Ikky wanted to get, was about the meat. It didn't look normal. What was it from, spirits?"

But it couldn't be? Everyone knows, evil-spirits, guardians, and even Sins would pop into smoke once they died. Spirits shouldn't be different.

'Unless... were those things still alive?!' Ikky's brain went wild with imagination.

"Are ya there?" Ikky shook the translucent meat in the air, with wariness, and as if waiting for it to respond.

"It is spirit meat. But how I made it is a secret for now." Arley answered.

"Ah." Ikky shrugged and then threw the weird beef in his mouth anyway.

"Food is food."

After licking the dishes clean, Ikky clapped his hands together and thanked them for the meal.

"For this meal you have bestowed upon me, I shall grant you any wish of your choice... as long as it's labour-based. Because I have no other use." He laughed.

"Tone down on the favours thing first, we don't even know your name yet." Rick asked.

"My name? It's Ikky Summers. Yours are Patrick and Charlotte. But your friends call you Rick and Arley."

Ikky answered, his eyes closed as his face pointed towards the roof with a satisfied smile drawn on it.

"Huh, do you know us from somewhere?" Arley asked.

"Not really. I just have good ears, eyes, and pretty much all else."

Rick drank out of the bottle of water that Ikky barely touched and asked,

"Ikky? Are you Eastern?"

"Not completely. I've got a mixed race thing going on." Ikky answered quickly and then took a glance at them. "You guys look Western, am I right?"

Arley nodded. "You're quite observative, and sharp minded. Hmm, if you're not working on anything currently, would you like a job in the meantime?"

"A job? You mean like catching underwear thieves like that other guy? Do you get a lot of those?"

Arley chuckled nervously. "No no. This is the first time this has happened."

Blurting that out fast enough, the darkening storm clouds of wrath and vengeance swirling in the other chair settled.

But then recalling her previous words, Rick rose an eyebrow. "What happened to Aster, isn't she your assistant?"

Arley sighed. "Aster's ascended. I can't keep her locked in Mahar forever. She has her own path to take."

Rick almost spit out the water in his mouth. "Ascended!"

Not minding his shock, Arley clapped her hands. "No worries though. Her sister was chosen to be among this year's Prophets. So I'll have plenty of help around here when she comes out."

Ikky didn't have to think long to give an affirmative answer to Arley's invitation. Apart from the suatainance having a job would provide... Ikky wondered how it would feel to actually experience it.

It was ironic how the unlucky ones struggled harder for their daily bread, yet got less than those who repeated the same simple tasks every day. At least, Ikky saw it as ironic.

But as much as he would like to say yes... he couldn't. If getting a job in his body was that simple, Ikky's life would have been a hundred times better.

Nocturni did not want a cursed child handling their goods, and Sumeru did not want an albino cockroach scampering around public vicinity; they had even tried to put him in a zoo once... Like all freaks should be.

Ikky reclined his chair and stretched his limbs. "You guys are weird."

Rick shrugged as Arley looked at him with question.

"Even I know it's common knowledge in the business world to advertise with pretty pretty things. But I am not that... I'm a deterrent. So even if my looks don't scare more than half your customers away, it'd just attract the wrong crowd instead."

Ikky was right. The only thing about his looks that seemed to have changed since before Nocturni, was an inch worth of his pale dry hair. In fact, he resembled the Jorogumo spirit he had conquered in his omen, if you looked at the spirit from a negative coloured lens.

His amber eyes was something you could commonly find in wild nocturnal animals, and Ikky could swear it even glowed in the dark; his sorry reflection always seemed to stare back even when the lights were out.

The white clothes he was wearing on should look good, but his body was still scrawny. His posture would be further ruined whenever he had something sneaky in mind — Ikky always hunched his back whenever he wanted to indulge in chaotic fun.

The point was, he wouldn't fit in with the beautiful couple — a slick jawed man with silky brown hair and a fair maiden with a radiant smile.

It'd seem like a story of beauties and a beast, if the beast was a third wheel.

In the midst of his mental notes and counts of why things wouldn't work out with him working here, Arley had left the room and come back with a four foot tall mirror and dropped it with Rick to hold.

Without a word, she walked to stand behind Ikky and packed his hair into her slender palms.

It was fluid, smooth and long, but not unkempt. A simple brush to the side was all she did to it.

Arley gave a sarcastic smirk as she looked at Ikky's reflection on the mirror in front of them.

"Whatever you say, Ms, I mean, Mr Deterrent."

"Heh. Typical Eastern men." Rick whistled out his racist comment.

"A fresh bath from spring water and spirit essence were all it took to cleanse your body, but you're the only person who'd know how to clean your mind... At least, you don't look scary to me."

Ikky took a glance at his figure in the mirror and then stood up with a shiver.

"Wow, clean clothes make me look like a gullible idiot." He roughed up his hair and lowered his eyes to make himself look cold and conniving.

"That's a little better. I should get a mascara to bring back by dark drowsy eyes. But my skin... What the hell did you two do to me?!" He rambled.

Ikky's appearance was creepy, but that was also it's good point. The menacing looking ones got lesser predators.

"I knew I'd regret eating that weird meat.!"

Hearing his words, Rick tossed the mirror aside as Arley walked off with a clearly resigned look. Changing Ikky's mindset seemed hopeless.

Scattering his hair some more, Ikky finally asked, "How am I getting paid?"

At his attempt to hide his deep emotions behind that question, Arley smiled. "We'll start with just providing you basic needs like food. But, if you think we're not giving you enough and want more, then you can visit the Kailash once in a while"

Basic necessities were way more than Ikky could ask for. He had no current desire for anything else.

"GO!"

But she was almost pulling his hair out from her request. And out of curiosity for why Yaga was acting this anxious, Ikky asked, "What is this, Kailash?"

Taking off her apron, Arley casually answered, "It's a breeding ground."