"Ok so, what are y'alls contracts, we gotta vote on which one seems doable." Edward said, drinking a carton of orange juice. The apartment's mood was mixed with upbeat and energetic, but the subtle quiet notion of unease.
Isaac tossed down a crumpled piece of paper onto the center of the table. Rayna and Edward exchanged a glance, both having the same collective irritation.
"What? You said to keep the one ya got right? I learned from my dad that if you crumple up a sheet of paper that's important, then you'll probably remember the contents of it more because of guilt." Isaac said with a hint of ego, looking up at the clock scratching his chin.
"What kind of Rieamaius bullshit is that…" Edward looked down, hiding his growing annoyance.
"Ok, ok, ok.. Fine I'll uncrumple it." Isaac said with an attitude. He reached and snatched the crumpled paper, then began to uncrumple it to the best of his abilities. After that, he slammed the paper onto the table again in spite.
Semi Elite rank Regulator Contract Request:
Call: ####-###-### To Confirm by 4:50 AM.
Retrieve [CONFIDENTIAL] data chip from The Compass Treaty base at the far eastern section of Ye-won forest.
Rayna analyzed the contract sheet, looking up at everyone then back at the contract sheet. "Ok, so is anyone gonna say something?" Isaac became more impatient.
"Absolutely not." Kohayuki broke the silence, she placed a contract sheet she found herself over Isaac's messed up contract sheet.
A rank Regulator Contract Request:
Call: ###-#### To Confirm.
Attend The Banquet of Song in New Nebulaia, 4th Capital.
An even deeper silence ensued. Kohayuki sat there, patiently. The sound of her finger tapping the table became louder, until Rayna coughed.
"Ahem…. Not a bad choice I will admit, let me look at the pay.." She added on, taking the contract paper and taking a closer look.
Her face went a little dark, lifelessly looking at the paper for a couple long seconds. And she groaned, "uhm… We get paid 8,000 Alikurs from this…"
Kohayuki's face lit up in surprise, yelling out, "WHAT?!" She then quietly mumbled, "I didn't even see the pay…."
Rayna sighed in exhaustion, turning to Johnathan. Although she knew the best thing she could do is to hear him out about what contract they're gonna do, she has this urge to skip him.
And so she did, "no." She shook her head up on looking at Johnathan, and when she turned to Edward, she remembered the last contract they all had done.
"Ok so I thi–"
"Absolutely not." Rayna interrupted Edward before he even continued with his statement. "The last contract was so confusing we spent 2 days trying to figure it out." She elaborated, shaking her head in disapproval.
"Not my fault we had to take 4 detours to get there." Edward shrugged, scratching the carton of orange juice.
Rayna replied with a hint of anger, "Because it was in the middle of fucking nowhere."
The Satoya-less gang went silent after that argument.
Kohayuki broke the deep silence, standing up from her chair to grab a plastic bottle of water from the fridge, while she was opening the bottle, she asked her, "so, Rayna, what is your choice?"
Rayna took out her contract paper, and began explaining the contents. She also pointed out, how in any case, there is the high likely chance that they could call either Ludwig or Sendo, despite them not being that close, they did manage to encounter them at an airport from Cervantes to Maehwa.
The Satoya-less gang briefly remembered their last meeting.
"So… We humbly apologize for the inconvenience acted by Satoya on his behalf ... .Uhm, Mr. Kanasawa.." Kohayuki apologized, looking down at the airport floor. She was primarily speaking to Sendo, who was attempting his very hardest to not curse her out, due to his chest being covered in bandages. Indeed he is still recovering from several severe injuries from the minor 'skirmish' of sorts against Argoreas.
"Psst, Kohayuki.. that's a horrid apology, let me—" Rayna whispered before being interrupted.
"Damn it, no point in apologizin' 'owever, we did hear of a… "Satoya Gang." And we thought bout uhh.." Sendo spoke awkwardly.
"Allow us to join." A familiar but direct voice intervened. The group looked behind Sendo and Ludwig and saw Rin, who seemed to be in quite a hurry.
"Well, to further explain it, I'd say it's a great idea to let us join. You see, not a lot of subsidiary divisions of the Regulator's Committee actually survive more than a week." Rin added on, approaching the group. Despite the ordinary appearance, Kohayuki noticed something rather odd: he seems to be missing his spear, that ominous spear that she believes the others have never seen, the main reason being, Rin only directly interacted with Satoya and her.
The Satoya-less Gang gave each other glances, they also whispered a small conversation with each other.
"I think this is a good ass deal."
"Who the hell is that guy with whateverchromia? I forgot his name."
"Kohayuki, that's Rin, how do you not remember?"
"Shut up."
Eventually, they mumbled in agreement, with Rayna quietly commenting, "I mean, why would we decline a what? Semi Elite Rank, and 2 Elite ranks."
"Alright, then, we'll handle the process, as well, it is quite difficult to join a subsidiary division at the ranks above Semi Elite." Rin said, upon another glance, Kohayuki realized another thing. It seems as if he expected them to not decline.. Was he planning this?
Now back to the present.
"Oh yeah, I totally forgot.. About how Ludwig and Sendo (as well as Rin) are now members of our "amazing" subsidiary division." Edward spoke with pride, which died down quickly. Rayna glared at him, debating whether or not he actually listened, but let out a sigh, and asked out loud, "Soooo.. Are we going with my contract?"
Everyone nodded their heads in collective agreement, "yup." They then began to leave the table, preparing to leave for the contract. However, only one person sat stagnant, in deep thought, the person being Kohayuki.
This is weirder than I had thought.. If only I asked Rin before we went our ways. I just cannot shake the feeling, everything about him is throwing me off. I need to ask him why he keeps disappearing, Elite Ranks, especially in the middle of the rank, aren't that busy.. Could it be that he's distancing from us on purpose?
"KOHAYUKI!" Rayna called, waking Kohayuki up from the contemplation. She then stood up, and went to grab her crowbar that was left against the side of the kitchen island.