Dealing with the Council

Shade sighed as he stood at the top of a tall mountain.

"Somebody remind me why I'm doing this?" Shade asked.

"Well because you wanted us to!" Shade jumped as he heard a voice. He turned to see a small girl with red twin tails floating upside down in front of him.

"Hey Balez, it's been... what, ten thousand years?" Shade asked.

"Yeah. What's with the mask?" Balez asked as she spun around to the correct angle.

"Let's not talk about that now," Another voice interjected. Shade looked up to see four more figures float down to Balez's level.

"What a wonderful planet you have," One of the figures spoke as she looked around, "Civilization seems to have thrived."

"At the expense of nature. You can clearly see how bad things are here, Mumei," Another one of the figures spoke, "At least I can sense some beings thriving throughout this world."

"I guess you're right, but I kinda like it here, Fauna," Mumei protested.

"I feel that it's too cramped," A fourth figure said as it looked around, "We should feel free to explore the space around us."

"Anyways, you know why we requested the visit," The fifth figure caught everyone's attention, "Someone has tampered with time here. Although you technically outrank the council and we are aware why such changes were made, we would still like to do an inspection."

"Alight," Shade shrugged as he took off his mask to reveal his burning, orange eyes, "Allow me to lead the way."

-

'That was... pretty eventful,' Ryan thought to himself as he looked at the bed where he and Suisei slept on the previous night. Slept together... in the same bed.

"Oh stop overreacting. You two barely held hands the entire night. The tension in the room almost made me snap in half," Edhas scoffed in Ryan's head.

'Alright whatever,' Ryan thought as he got up. As much as he wanted to spend more time with Suisei, there was work that needed to be done.

"You could always ask Kiara for a day off," Edhas pointed out as Ryan prepared to head out, "I'm sure she'll understand."

'No, I'll go to work,' Ryan sighed. After all, there were things that needed to be done.

-

As soon as Ryan crossed the threshold, there were five weapons aimed at his throat. Ryan just stopped calmly as he got a good look at each of the unfamiliar women that had attacked him.

"I would highly recommend against doing that," Ryan heard a familiar voice. He turned to see Shade walking up to them.

"I wasn't going to do anything," Ryan said.

"I wasn't talking to you, kid," Shade said.

"What? He doesn't look so tough!" The short redhead with twintails shouted as he looked back at Shade, "Plus, we need to take care of the anomaly!"

"Agreed," The one with the blue hair said in a dull tone, "I can sense the time distortions coming from him."

"Just... stand down and we can talk it out," Shade held his hands up in an attempt to calm down the group, "It's rude to attack people before introducing yourselves."

"Fine," The small redhead lowered their weapons as they all made their way to Shade's side.

"My name is Hakos Balez," The short redhead introduced herself.

"My name is Ouro Kronii," The woman with blue hair said.

"My name is Nanashi Mumei," The brown haired woman said with a soft smile.

"I'm Tsukumo Sana! Nice to meet ya!" The girl with white hair and floating planets exclaimed cheerily.

"Sana, we need to remain professional when introducing ourselves," The woman with green hair said before turning her attention back to Ryan, "I am Ceres Fauna."

"We are what's known as The Council," Balez explained before pointing a finger at Ryan, specifically at the gray eye that Storm had given him, "And that eye of yours is an illegal void weapon."

"Of course it is," Ryan grumbled.

"Actually, he got it through legal means," Shade pointed out.

"Wait, really?!" Balez, turning to Shade, exclaimed, "Oh, poo! You're no fun! I wanted to fight someone!"

"Well maybe you should all come in and have something to eat. It would be nice to talk about things over food and not blades," Ryan said.

"Food sounds like a good idea," Shade said before any of the council could interject, "Let's go in."

-

"Welcome to- HEY IT'S YOU!" Kiara shouted as she pointed at Fauna, "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO PUT ME ON TIME OUT ALL THOSE YEARS AGO!"

"You were burning the forest. I couldn't let nature suffer like that," Fauna replied innocently.

"And I'll do it-,"

"Can we please be civil for once? I'm not exactly in the mood for a fight today," Ryan cut Kiara off.

"I am," Edhas offered.

'No one asked you,' Ryan shot back.

"Anyways, what would you all like to eat?" Ryan asked as he made his way to the other side of the counter.

"I'll have anything," Mumei said as she sat down, "I would love to see how far this civilization has come."

"There's a lot of fried chicken stuff here," Fauna looked at the menu, "I'll just have some Birb Mild Wings."

"I'm surprised you're not vegan or something," Ryan said.

"Consumption is a part of nature. Why would I deny that?" Fauna asked.

"I'll have whatever too," Kronii said.

"I'll have the Phoenix Fire Wings!" Balez exclaimed.

"I'll have what Balez is having," Sana said.

"Alright, I'll go make those all for you right now," Kiara said before making her way to the back room.

"So, what brings the mighty Council here?" Ryan asked. He didn't know much about the council but he knew they were powerful. If the five of them teamed up, they could wipe the floor with the Void no problem.

"Oh we're just doing a routine checkup on things," Mumei explained.

"Ever since a certain group killed off the gods," Kronii paused to give Shade a glare before continuing, "We had to pick up the slack. There were a few time distortions that happened around this location so we decided to check it out."

"Oh, I guess I have to explain myself," Ryan shrugged.

"Yes, if anyone but Jack made that watch on your wrist, it would be highly illegal," Kronii informed.

"Why does Jack get a special pass?" Ryan asked out of curiosity.

"Because-,"

"Let's not talk about that now," Shade interjected before Kronii could continue, "Ryan, just tell your story already."

Ryan sighed, "Alright. This might take a little while."

-

"Wow, these things are good!" Sana exclaimed as Ryan was finishing up his story, "Ne Mumei, can we stay here?"

"Why are you asking me? We make decisions together," Mumei replied.

"Anyways, we should let Ryan finish his story," Kronii said.

"Actually, I was just about done," Ryan sighed.

"That's quite the tale," Fauna said.

"Hey Kronii, we should go back there and fuck things up!" Balez winked as she nudged her fellow council member with her elbow, "It'll be fun!"

"Absolutely not," Kronii snapped while slapping Balez's elbow away, "But this Suisei person. We would get along."

"I don't exactly like what you're implying," Ryan grumbled.

"Anyways, what are we going to do now?" Mumei asked as she finished her Birb Mild Wings.

"I wanna stay here!" Sana exclaimed as she shot her fist in the air, "Plus, I heard that the Ancient Ones are here too! I would love to meet them again!"

"Me too!" Balez chirped.

"There is a lot of improvement that can be done here," Fauna nodded her head thoughtfully, "It would be a shame if we left this place without doing anything."

"I need to keep an eye on Ryan and this... Amelia Watson," A sadistic gleam flashed through Kronii's eyes for a split second, "I'm sure that we can have a lot of fun here."

"I guess we're all in agreement," Mumei declared.

"If you guys are going to be staying here, I know someone who can get you a job," Shade said.

"Job? What's that?" Balez asked.

"In civilization, people have to work to get what they need to survive," Mumei informed her fellow council member.

"Work? That sounds boring," Balez groaned.

"I know someone who can get you a job and make it fun," Shade added.

"Oh dear Matsuri," Kiara said as her palm hit her face, "You're taking them to YAGOO, aren't you?"

"Who else would I take them to? Reporter?" Shade scoffed.

"Yeah, I think YAGOO would be the better bet," Ryan shuddered. He still had no idea what happened in Reporter's workshop, but it certainly wasn't anything he wanted to be involved in.

"Anyways, we should probably go now," Shade said as he stood up, "It was nice seeing you again, Ryan."

"What about me?!" Edhas exclaimed.

"And you too, Edhas," Shade said aloud.

"It was nice meeting you! I'm sure we'll have lots of fun together!" Balez shot upwards with a grin.

"I'm keeping my eye on you," Kronii gave Ryan a glare.

"Thank you for your hospitality," Mumei bowed politely.

"I'm sure we will meet again," Fauna nodded.

"I'll see you again soon! Pinky promise!" Sana chirped.

"Thank you for coming," Ryan bowed respectfully as the group of six left.

"Well, that was interesting," Kiara said.

"Yeah, let's hope nothing bad happens in the near future. I'm already worn out," Ryan grumbled.

"You know something bad happens whenever you say that," Edhas pointed out.

'You shut the fuck up,' Ryan grumbled. He was enjoying this time of peace. He had spent the past couple months worrying about every little thing. Now he could relax. Now, he could spend time with his family.