Chapter 41: Ramen

Chapter 41: Ramen

After Ashly explained her circumstances he couldn't help but have a bad taste in his mouth. Despite her needing that energy he still felt used and of course, he wasn't ok with randomly being beaten up for no reason. His only answer was to leave the sorrowful Ashly in her room to her own thoughts. He would have originally helped her figure out a way to find some sort of energy or area to cultivate that energy without needing to harm people herself but that chance was no longer there and he thinks he might be done with her at least for now.

Once he walked out of the apartment with his aching body he looked out towards the sky and saw that it was turning night. When he had first entered the apartment it was a few hours past noon so he had no idea how many hours he must have been in there and frankly he didn't want to think about it.

Just looking at his apartment and how close it was to the person that just basically assaulted him Kaden felt like he didn't want to go in there so he left the apartment building and began walking down the street mindlessly just taking in the cold night air and limping with his still aching body.

'This is not the first day I had in mind.' Kaden thought to himself trying to make fun of the situation to also make himself feel a little better but it wasn't enough to completely erase it from his mind. He needed a little something else to get his mind off of things and the perfect opportunity showed itself as a small little building on the side of the road ahead of him was lit up and it had a large sign that said ramen shop.

Seeing this his heart started to get a little happier and he made his way towards the shop before finally entering inside through the outside door which was just some curtains hanging downward.

The atmosphere brightened his attitude immediately as he looked around. The one-room shop was bright and colorful with a light oak wood used for all of the inner walls and furniture. The one-room shop just had a counter in the middle of the room that separated the customers and cooks.

Once Kaden entered all of the people that were in there had their eyes drawn towards him but it was actually only 3 people in there in total. 2 people were behind the counter one being an older man and another that was around Kaden's age. The one other person was at one of the seats on the far left side but they were surprisingly wearing a strange mask. At a closer glance, it seemed to be a kitsune mask which Kaden thought was strange but no one else seemed to be questioning it so he didn't either.

Kaden then went forward and took one of the seats at the middle of the counter and was about to look at the menu but he realized that all of the people in the room were looking at him strangely, "What's wrong?" Kaden asked them in confusion.

Seeing that Kaden had no idea what they were looking at him that way for the younger cook turned around and began cooking once more while the older man looked at Kaden longer, "Do you have no idea what you look like right now young man?" The old man asked also in confusion.

Kaden had no idea what he meant until the old man pulled out his phone and showed him the mirror image of Kaden in the phone camera. Kaden had forgot to look at himself after his bout with Ashly and didn't even assess what his injuries looked like due to the amount of surprise he had at the whole situation and how he just wanted out of there. His face had bruises on the left and right cheek with some slight cuts and dried blood at the top right of his head and he could see from the top of his arms jutting out of his shirt that he had bruises there as well.

"Oh well that's not very good." Kaden tried to laugh it off considering that even he didn't think it would look this bad despite his pain on the way there.

The old man seemed to be surprised once more by his words, "I'm surprised you can laugh in such a state. Just based off of the wounds I can see they were pretty bad. I will get you a bowl immediately." The old man said before turning around and joining the younger man to cook the ramen.

Kaden hadn't even ordered yet but it seemed that they had chosen his meal for him not that he minded at the moment. He was just embarrassed that he had walked around in such a state. He then looked over at the person to his left that was now also looking at him but Kaden couldn't read their thought or even any facial expressions because of the mask that covered their face but what he did see was that there was an empty bowl in front of them that was surely filled with ramen beforehand.

"How did you get those?" A voice came from the mask but it was distorted for some reason to mask their voice and due to the baggy clothes they were wearing Kaden couldn't tell the gender of this person at all.

"Me and my friend had a fight." Kaden answered with honesty or at least partial honesty.

The person seemed to ponder a moment before speaking once more, "That's quite the violent friend you have." They said.

"ORDER UP!" The younger chef shouted before placing a bowl in front of Kaden interrupting his conversation.

Kaden then looked down at the ramen bowl and he had to admit that it was the most delicious thing he had seen in a very long time and maybe even dyring his entire life but the thing that caught his attention the most was the fact that the ramen was giving off a strange glow for some reason.noVe(Lb(1n