Danso pushed open the door of the main lobby to find that it was more of a home than an actual workplace. There were multiple rooms for members and guests, a lengthy wooden dining table that appeared to be germ-free, and an office marked with the sign "Dark Mixed Military Squad meeting room." Emily guided Danso through the numerous rooms and corridors of the giant buildings to his room.
"As of now, you have the guest room if you get in, the guest sign gets replaced by your name or whatever Chiro likes," stated Emily.
"Alright, I understand," replied Danso.
Danso stopped abruptly and started looking around for Haruki, who seemed to disappear from his sight. Emily waited for a second, then proceeded to get annoyed from waiting.
"Why are you taking so long?" questioned Emily, who was five feet ahead of him.
"Where's Haruki?" asked Danso.
"As soon as Haruki reaches home, he goes straight to his room and starts playing kid games on his gaming console," explained Emily.
"Where is his room?" questioned Danso.
Emily rolled her eyes and then proceeded to point her finger in the direction of Haruki's room.
"It's the second room to the left," said Emily before walking off in the opposite direction to her room.
Danso walked straight through the corridor, admiring the clean floor that acted as a mirror, the expensive and slick chandelier hanging from the tall roof. The DMMS Headquarters reminded him of a hotel, not some place where a military agency would reside. Danso then reached Haruki's room. It had a blue door with many stickers of popular characters from television shows, movies, and games. Danso knocked on the door with his knuckles once. There was no response from the other side. He proceeded to knock once more, and still no response. When he knocked the third time, he finally got a response from Haruki.
"Who is it?" screamed Haruki, far away from the door, cocooned in his room.
"It's me, Danso Narahara," replied Danso.
Haruki got up and walked towards the door. He twisted the knob and pulled it back, opening it. Danso was outside, leaning on the wall, waiting.
"Why are you here, uncle?" questioned Haruki.
"To play video games," responded Danso.
"Alright! Let's play then! I get so bored around busy adults or adults who are women and don't understand the appeal of software entertainment!" squealed Haruki.
"Me too," chuckled Danso as he entered the room and took a seat on one of the bean bag chairs.
"Get off the black bean bag chair that's always mine," exclaimed Haruki.
Danso got off the black bean bag chair and proceeded to sit on a red, more broken and old bean bag chair as Haruki handed Danso a controller and booted up a two-player game. Then, both of them played for over two hours straight. The game was a fighting game, and Danso was decent at fighting games, while Haruki was below average in the game. Danso was lenient, so he let Haruki win sometimes to make sure he didn't get too angry and vote for him not to be in the squad. Then, Danso got an idea.
"Yo Haruki, what if you and I have a 1v1 in any game you choose, and if I win, you have to vote for me to stay in the DMMS, and if I lose, I'll buy you whatever you want," proposed Danso.
"Alright! You're gonna lose," said Haruki as he started scrolling through the game collection he had. Since Danso was good at fighting games, Haruki assumed that he wouldn't be good at strategy card games, therefore, he chose a game called Card Wars.
"This is the game that I want us to play!" showed Haruki, while his pointer hovered over the game waiting to be clicked.
Unbeknownst to Haruki, Card War was Danso's favorite game growing up, therefore he has so much experience playing that game. Danso agreed to play the game, and they both booted up a match. Since it had been a long time since he last played, Danso had to recollect all the game's rules.
Card War
There are 10 cards from -5 to 5.
The game aims to defeat the opponent three times, taking the opponent's lives with each victory that the user gets.
First Player 1 (whoever wins the coin toss to start) puts down a card.
Then Player 1 picks another card, and Player 2 also has to take one card.
Then Player 2 has to guess when Player 1 adds both his cards, would it be greater or less than his card.
If Player 2 guesses right, then Player 1 loses a heart; if Player 2 guesses wrong, Player 2 loses a heart.
The game repeats until one player has zero hearts.
Haruki became player 1 and won the coin toss, Danso became player 2. Haruki pulled a card, and the card was -3; his second card was 5, meanwhile, Danso's card was 1.
"I choose that the card is greater than mine," said Danso as he turned out to be correct.
After three more rounds, Haruki lost all his hearts while Danso only lost one, therefore, Haruki had to vote for him to stay in the DMMS.
"I mean, I am not whining that you'll stay, I have someone to play video games with now!" jumped Haruki, as Danso laughed and left the room to go rest in his room.
Danso followed the directions that Emily had previously given and walked towards his room. He opened the door and entered his room. The room looked untouched by anyone. The bed was neatly done and to the side, while the table and drawers were in front of him and neatly organized, without a single item out of place. Danso jumped into his soft, bouncy bed and wanted to go straight to sleep and take a nap. When he woke up, the time was seven PM. Danso washed his face but then heard a loud, blaring noise from the room next door. Danso went out of his room and knocked on the neighbor's door. The noise stopped for a second, and the door opened. The person who opened the door was a person his age, with a single horn growing on his forehead. He was wearing a tracksuit and a hoodie.
"Who are you?" asked the man.
"I am Danso, the guy who got selected by Chiro for the second trial," replied Danso.
"Okay, why are you here? don't you have other work to do?" muttered the man in a bored, exhausted manner.
"I just woke up and heard your noise. Can you please keep it down?" requested Danso.
"No, now get lost," said the man while slamming the door on Danso's face.
Just as the door was about to close, Danso stopped the door with his right hand and pushed it open, walking inside the room. The man didn't like this and pushed Danso's right hand and attempted to close the door once again, but Danso stopped it with his left hand this time. The man now got annoyed, stepped outside the door, and his hands started glowing with a blue light emitting from his horn as he pushed Danso forward, throwing him straight onto the dinner table, messing up the neat order of plates on the table.
"You messed up now," threatened Danso as he put his hand forward, calling for his sword.
Since Danso's sword is made of holy steel, and since holy steel has the power to absorb soul energy, Danso stored some soul energy that he can control in the sword, so he can move it whenever he wants, even if he is not wielding the sword with his hands. The sword immediately responded to Danso's call and flew towards his hand. The man and Danso had one glare at each other before sprinting towards each other. The man was dodging all of Danso's attacks with ease, dancing around the attacks like a male ballerina. The man, after dodging Danso's recent attack, slapped his hand, throwing the sword out of reach and punching Danso in the face, as Danso directed the sword on the ground to slice the man as it did. Both of them fell to the ground as the ruckus caused Chiro to come out of his room.
"What is going on here, Tensei and Danso?" asked Chiro.
"This idiot won't leave me in peace," replied Tensei.
"Chiro, I came nicely and knocked on his door to tell him to turn the noise in his room down and he just proceeded to slam the door on my face, so I stopped the door from closing twice, and then he started attacking me, so I attacked him back," explained Danso.
By hearing all the ruckus, the rest of the squad came out. Emily walked out of her room, with her hair straight as always, in her pajamas, and another woman walked out with short hair and a doctor's outfit, and Haruki walked out.
"Tensei, you might not like what I am about to say, but Danso here is being the most reasonable one here," stated Chiro almost like a father. "So, apologize to him and end this drama already," whined Chiro.
"Sorry nerd," said Tensei, trying to provoke Danso again, which he almost did.
"Fine, I am going back then," said Danso.
"Danso, if you don't mind, can you come to the meeting room with me?" requested Chiro.
"Okay," replied Danso, as he followed Chiro to the meeting room where it was just the two of them. Danso took a seat, and Chiro sat in the leader's chair.
"How's life here?" asked Chiro.
"Pretty good," replied Danso.
"Your neighbor's name is Tensei Nagashima, he's a water demon, that's why he got that horn," said Chiro.
"Pretty obvious," stated Danso.
"He's a good guy, I took him in when he was Haruki's age. He was unwanted and alone, and I changed that because I saw a spark in him," explained Chiro.
"Okay? What do I have to do with this information?" questioned Danso.
"Two things, I know he has to take responsibility, and it was his fault, but let it go this one time, he's been through a lot, and another thing, you already convinced Haruki to vote for you, right?" asked Chiro.
"Yeah, how do you know?" asked Danso.
"He told me himself, you look like you're getting along with everyone, now Haruki looks up to you and Tensei, so please be a responsible person, ok?" requested Chiro.
"I am not even a confirmed person in the DMMS yet, how does he look up to me?" asked Danso.
"To him, you are, and he is a kid. You may leave now," said Chiro.
"Alright," said Danso as he got up from his chair and walked outside the door.
"Danso!" called Chiro, as Danso was about to leave.
"Yeah?" asked Danso
"Call Tensei here for me," said Chiro.
"Okay," replied Danso as he left the room and walked towards Tensei's room. While thinking about how much of a pain Tensei is and thinking about what to do for the night ahead, where he has to sneak out and become the Red Samurai to save the city, and how to get out without being noticed.