Dagoku slowly woke up from his dream, and wondered what had just happened. Before he could make out what his dream was, a small girl suddenly tackled him, and he was sent back crashing to the floor. Dagoku, still in a daze, looked at the small girl on top of him, who was now pouting for some reason, and smiled.
"Now, now, what is it?" He asked, patting her head.
"Onii chan was sweating, so Emiko decided to wake him up, however he wasn't waking up!" Emiko said worriedly. "You weren't having nightmares again, were you?"
"Oh it's nothing, just some random dream. Also, stop calling me that, it's quite embarrassing," Dagoku replied to Emiko as he started to get up. "It just feels weird when you've just been calling me by my name for the last 9 years we've been together."
"No, my teacher said that I should start calling my brother by this instead of his first name because it is more respectful," Emiko responded to him while laying on the floor.
"Can't just, like not say that? It is your lovely brother's wishes. It sounds like I am in some cringe anime where the main character has a cute little sister that everybody simps for. Not to mention the word "Onii chan" sounds equally as cringe as well," Dagoku desperately pleaded.
"No. Emiko needs to learn how to be more loving to Dagoku!" Emiko announced, and then jumped towards Dagoku into a hug.
"Damn it…a Japanese school can really do a lot to influence a girl's decision," Dagoku said to himself as he hugged back. "Even though it is normal to that that in Japan, it still sounds extremely cringe."
Dagoku checked the time, and noticed that it it was time for him to go to to his job. Dagoku tried pulled away from Emiko's embrace, however it seemed as if she was stuck to him with glue, so he just decided to go to the washroom to brush his teeth.
So he waddled to the bathroom with Emiko, his little sister, still clinging to him. When he finally arrived, he headed over to the sink and took a peek at himself while brushing his teeth. He had cut his hair so now it was shorter than before, and he noticed the many scars on his body from various fights he had accumulated over the years. He also noticed that there were some faint dark circles forming around his eyes, which was likely due to how tiring his job was, and noticed how his multicolored irises stood out compared to the rest of his face. He then touched the stump that was of where his left arm had been, and wondered why it still throbbing even after all these years.
After he finished brushing his teeth, he went to the fridge and microwaved some leftover meals from the night before. Emiko finally came off of him and sat down at the table, where they both ate the fried rice in an awkward silence. Usually when they ate, Emiko would be talking about random subjects, from life at school to the random things she found on the internet, once talking about the random phrases people were saying on the internet and used those damn words for an entire week (He considered jumping through the window at one point, but decided against it).
"So, how's it going?" Dagoku asked, trying to start a conversation.
"Everything's alright. School is fun, my friends are good, and I've finished my homework," Emiko replied back.
"Are you going to do anything interesting today? It is a Friday after all," Dagoku asked.
"I'm probably going to just come back home after school and watch television," Emiko said.
"That's nice, I guess," Dagoku replied.
After they finished their food, Dagoku packed Emiko's backpack and they headed out to go to her school. They opened the apartment door, and headed for the elevator. They were on the 4th floor, so Emiko clicked the button for the 1st floor. Once they reached the first floor, they exited the building and headed out to the streets of Tokyo. It read 7:50 on Dagoku's watch, so the streets were quite busy. Due to this, Dagoku decided to use the alleyways to reach Emiko's school.
The two of them headed to a neaby alleyway, and saw many small business and restaurants packed with customers. After a couple of turns here and there, they finally reached Emiko's school. Emiko saw her friends, gave Dagoku one last hug, and ran off to catch up with her friends.
After Emiko left, Dagoku decided to her over to his workplace. Before departing however, headed back to the alleyway and bought some food to save as lunch for later, as he spent too long making Emiko's lunch and didn't have to to pack his own. Afterwards, he took a different route, this time to alleys where there where no businesses and was not able to be easily spotted from the public's eye. While he was walking, he noticed something move in a small space in the alleyway. He decided to check out what it was for no particular reason, and when he arrived there, he noticed that it was a weird looking animal in a box. Upon further inspections, he realized that it was actually a kitten. It seemed to have been abandoned by someone, most likely its owner.
Before Dagoku could think of what to, the kitten noticed him and let out a tiny meow, its tiny, cute, adorable eyes staring back at him.
Dagoku reached his workplace, a small building in an alleyway quite the distance from Emiko's school. He entered inside and greeted the receptionist at the counter and headed over to the locker room, where he found his fanny pack and attached it to his hips. He then added some cotton balls and handkerchiefs and place the kitten inside the fanny pack so that he would not have to carry it in his right hand at all times. He then grabbed his katana and headed over to a room near the locker room.
The people in the room turned their eyes and saw Dagoku enter the room. One man said "morning" to him, to which Dagoku also replied back "good morning". He went over and sat down at one of the desks that was in the room wondered what he was going to do today. He wanted to go home quickly and show Emiko the kitten he had found. Dagoku knew for a fact that Emiko loved cats, and that she would spoil the kitten to the ends of the earth. Dagoku looked at the kitten in his fanny pack, to which the kitten meowed back at him, and Dagoku couldn't resist petting the kitten over and over. He couldn't decide what to name the kitten, so he decided to choose one with Emiko when he got back.
As he was thinking about what to call the kitten, a man dressed in complete black entered the room and everyone stopped talking.
"Alright everyone, we've got another job for you all to complete," the man said.