Chapter 230 - Initiation

Eiro pushed the doors to the building in front of him open and stepped inside without a second thought. He could tell everything that was going on around him anyway, so there was no need to stop and take a look around. And it seemed like his confident demeanor came in quite handy, especially in an organization like this where everyone was trying to be the strongest and most impressive one around.

The building that Eiro just entered was something like a central hangout space, apparently. At the very least, there were quite a few people just sitting around tables, talking to each other, networking, making deals, and caring for their weapons or tools.

It had multiple floors which were all open, letting people from above look down onto the center of the room that Eiro was currently walking through. He noticed that many of them were doing so, actually, staring down at the Demon as he was walking along there.

"Talk to that guy. He's gonna help you through it. And behave yourself, you hear?" The man that was standing behind the wall before told Eiro, staring deeply at him while he made his way back outside. And so, Eiro stepped over toward 'that guy', who was sitting behind a messy desk with a glass of liquor in his hand, flipping through an old book.

For a moment, that man looked up from his book and then turned his eyes back toward it, "What d'ya want?" He asked in an annoyed tone, "I'm busy, ya know?"

"Do I look like I care? I'm here to... well, sign up or whatever it's called here." Eiro replied, and this time around, the man slowly placed down his book, "Listen here, bud, I don't know how you got in here, but you can't just 'sign up'. Were you recommended or did you take one of our guys out?"

"Neither." The Demon replied bluntly, before the man sitting behind the desk just glared at him, "Then how the f.u.c.k did you even get in here? You know that this is probably the worst place to invade, right?"

Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose as he shook his head, "Not what I mean. I just didn't 'take one of your guys out'. I turned him into my... well, pet, I'd say." Eiro said as he took a step to the side and grabbed John by the collar before pulling him in front of him, holding his face toward the man that was sitting behind the desk.

He squinted his eyes and stared at him, before slowly opening his eyes wide. He jumped up and looked past John and at Eiro, "This... This is John Hawley, right? Number 9? What did you do to him?"

"Oh... well, nothing much. I just gave him some food to eat, and all of a sudden, he started going crazy, you know?" Eiro explained with a light grin on his face, before the man behind the counter stared at the Demon with a deep glare, "Sorry, but no matter what you did, since he's still alive, he's keeping his position in the organization... Even if he's like... that, it doesn't count. So get out of here, you hear?"

"What? So I would really need to kill him? I mean, it's a shame, I wanted to see this progress a bit further..." Eiro sighed annoyedly and slowly looked at John. But before he could do anything, a stroke of luck appeared.

"Yo, buddy, he just said to piss off. So I suggest you do that, before I turn you into a bit of experience." A man stepped up behind Eiro, large and bulky. Muscles exposed, a large sword at his side, and a deep glare faced at Eiro. He placed his hand onto the disguised-demon's shoulder and tried to squeeze as hard as he could. And that 'as hard as he could' was embarrassingly weak.

"Oh?" Eiro smiled lightly as he saw the necklace around the man's thick, log-like neck, and then saw the number written onto it. 561. There were only a few thousand members of this organization, and considering this, this number may seem a slight bit impressive, but... It was anything but impressive, apparently. Because this guy seemed more than just weak. Eiro's party members would definitely be able to beat this guy individually if they just tried hard enough. It seemed like what was most important when it came to recruitment was something like 'drive' or 'vision', rather than actual strength.

"So I just need to kill any one member of this organization, and I'll become a member?" Eiro asked, and the man behind the desk slowly nodded his head, "Yes, and once you've proven that fact to us, you'll become a member. Now, get out of-"

But before that man could even finish his sentence, Eiro grabbed the wrist of the tall, bulky guy behind him and squeezed it tightly. So tightly that it actually loudly cracked and broke the next moment. It turned blue and purple, and the man looked down at Eiro with a deep glare. But before he could even say anything else, Eiro pulled the sword out of the man's sheath and proceeded to stab it into his face.

He dropped to the ground with a loud thud, and Eiro turned toward the man who was standing behind the desk with a startled expression, since it was apparently quite hard for even him to see what exactly just happened. If he had blinked, he may have missed it completely.

"Is it enough proof to have a couple dozen eye-witnesses?" Eiro asked with a soft smile on his face, and the man that stood behind the counter slowly swallowed the saliva that gathered in his mouth while he wasn't paying attention. He stared at the dead body with the impaled head and slowly nodded his head.

"Fine. You're good enough, I guess." The man clicked his tongue as he walked over toward the dead body. 

He squatted down a bit and grabbed the necklace around the dead guy's neck, before just pulling it off of him. He then handed it to Eiro, "Here, it's yours now. Come with me, we'll deal with all of this without this many people staring."

With a smile on his face, Eiro followed the man, dragging John behind him while he was at it. They stepped down some stairs at the back of the room and soon reached a separate, smaller room that was nearly completely empty.

"You know, usually it's not allowed for members to kill each other here. But I guess you technically weren't a member yet, so you're lucky. Now..." The man said with a slight sigh as he stood in the center of the room.

"I'm a special member, an 'Exclamation Mark'. I'm outside the regular ranks, and I'm the one that actively tests new members to assign them a position." With that, he slowly pulled up his sleeves, "Obviously I don't know every member, considering that especially the ones in the four-digit range have the tendency to change every couple weeks, but I know about everyone in the two-digit range. John was a prime candidate to become a letter, but I guess that's in the past now. I doubt he'll be even able to keep his rank up like this for much longer."

Eiro listened to the man curiously and watched as he seemed to prepare for a fight, stretching a little bit and taking off his jacket. After he was done, he looked at the disguised demon and placed his hands behind his back.

"To give you a brief introduction... strength is everything in this organization. If you're not strong, then you're garbage, that's the philosophy in this place. Outside of this special street, or inside here in specifically organized and sanctioned duels, you may kill other members of the organization to quickly increase your rank. Once you kill that member, a Letter will be assigned to recruit a new member. Once you reach rank 1, you will be allowed to challenge the Letter Z. Being in the single-digit range, or being a letter, give you special privileges, of course. Everything else will explained when necessary."

"Alright, sounds good to me. Should we get started already then?"

"Of course, of course." The man, the 'exclamation mark', replied, "You may fight me in however way you wish, but you will not be allowed to complain if you are unhappy with the rank you receive afterward. I will be fighting using my bare hands."

Eiro looked at the special member and then just shrugged, "Then I'll do the same." And with that, he took up his stance, although the special member just slightly scoffed, "Do not expect everyone to be as weak as the man you just killed. Every special member is required to be at least strong enough to be a single digit."

"A single digit like John, who I turned into 'that'?" The Demon asked with a slight laugh, but the special member just stared back at him, "I do not know what methods you used, but you will not be able to repeat it this time around. It will be a fair fight where you will be unable to make use of any unfair tricks. Now, let us start. In three... two... one... now!"

The man seemed to be eager to fight Eiro somehow, but despite insinuating that Eiro was underrestimating him, the man seemed to be the one that was underrestimating their opponent. Because the Demon immediately infused his body with air magic to give himself an incredible speed boost, and managed to get behind the man nearly immediately. With that speed, he tried to grab onto him, but the man managed to slightly shift away from Eiro to avoid this.

But just when he did, Eiro released all of the air magic in his body and focused it onto the man, and the strong gust actually caused him to have to stand still to resist the force for a moment. In that time, Eiro kicked the man's shin and immediately caused a loud cracking sound to appear. Obviously, Eiro had manipulated his own life-force to give himself an advantage, but this kind of difference in ability was even beyond his expectations.

And while the 'special member' stared back at Eiro while trying to ignore the pain in his leg, Eiro sighed out annoyedly, "You know, we can just stop and you give me the highest rating you can, and I won't break any more of your bones today."

"Sorry, but that's not how it works." The man replied with a glare, so Eiro just shrugged, "Suit yourself. Just don't come crying to me later because you made a wrong choice."