Thanatos System

As the birds chirped from being awoken by the sun's gentle touch, it was yet another day once again.

"Rise and shine, my dear pupil!"

Kai was knocking on Zachary's window now. Although it was technically morning, it was still 5AM. 

Zachary saw Kai's overly excited face, stared at it for ten seconds with his bewildered expression, and went back to sleep shortly after.

Kai continued to knock and pester him.

"Hey! Weren't you the one who wanted me to take you under my wing? Come on, Zach. I only have two days at most!"

The S Rank Fire Slayer did not cease from waking Zachary up.

"Why does it feel like I did a terrible thing last night? I should not have asked someone as annoying as this to be my teacher. But regardless of his personality and how he carries himself, his strength cannot be denied. I really do have no choice, do I?"

Zach asked himself in the deepest recesses in his thoughts.

He grumbled all of it incoherently in on his pillow.

"Your training has not even started yet, it is far too early to lose it, you know?"

Kai grinned at the sleeping rookie through the window.

Meanwhile Yin was on his room, getting blasted by the notification from the Thanatos System regarding his daily quest.

"When is this going to end? I am only Level 12, and I already want to give up…"

Yin said.

"Some 'hero' you are."

The Creator's voice responded to him.

"What?! Why are you in my head?!"

Yin exclaimed.

"Why not? I am one with the System. Have you already forgotten? I am one of the two reasons why this System was created."

"No. I definitely have not forgotten that, but you still have not told me your name. What is it?"

"Who I am, what my name is, what I do inside your head, why I exist – all these meaningless questions are of no importance to your circumstances right now, trust me. I am who I will always be to you. I am The Creator."

"It is a bit too early for me to listen to your condescending voice, to be quite frank with you."

Yin responded nonchalantly.

The Creator's voice scoffed.

"Fine, have it your way."

Yin went back to sleep after their that very uneventful conversation.

His sleep's resume was cut abruptly with the sound of shattering glass.

It came from Zach's room.

Yin immediately put on his boots and ran towards the location of the sound.

As he was in the hallway, he spotted Suna, who was also startled and was running towards Zachary's room.

She still had her hair styled in the famous "bed head" style.

"Did you hear that?!"

Yin asked her while his face had a startled expression on.

"Yeah, that is why I jumped out of bed, what the heck was that?!"

She responded.

As the two made their way to Zachary's room, they eyes began to go from 'concerned' to 'not even surprised.'

On the floor was Kai Xin, picking up the pieces of broken glass from Zachary's window pane.

Zach was there, standing over him, like a disappointed yet equally furious mother making her son clean up after his carelessness.

Kai saw Yin and Suna at the door.

"Oh, what is up, guys?" Kai laughed nervously while scratching his head. "It may look bad, but there is an explanation for this, trust me."

Together, Yin and Suna did not even respond to the man.

They both just walked back to their rooms and resumed their sleep.

"What were you thinking, honestly?"

Zach asked Kai Xin.

"Look, Zach, I did not know that it would break the glass! I was only going to shine a light ray of fire at you, it would not have hurt you, emphasis on the word 'light.'"

Kai Xin responded to Zachary.

"And what would that have accomplished?"

"I was hoping it would get you out of bed, honestly. Looking at you standing up from your bed now, it worked. Right?"

Zach sighed.

He sat back down on his bed.

"I read some details about the letter Gavin and the Commander, Luken, got. It was written that all S rank and higher rank Slayers should have been present for a meeting at the Grand Castle."

Zach said.

"Are you sure snooping around your superior's things would not get you into trouble? That is not a very nice thing to do, Zach."

"Comedy will not help you out of the question, Kai. I am just curious; I do not mean to pry."

"Aside from the fact that Ignis instructed me to do what I did yesterday, which was precisely done because then Gavin and Luken would not be here, well, I just did not like to go, plain and simple."

Kai responded while picking up the shards of glass carefully as to not cut his palms.

"Wasn't it an order? Can you really afford to disobey summons from the Emperor himself?"

Zachary was puzzled.

"You know how all Slayers are in the same Slayer Corps, right? But we are free to choose our organization and what group we wish to be included in. I asked Ignis if it was a necessity for me to go, he just told me to not force it. That I should not go if I did not really feel like it."

"And?"

"And, my young student, that is precisely what I have done! There will be penalties to my paycheck, I am sure of it. But that is nothing, I would rather be penalized than to force myself to attend those meetings, if it really is that important, I can have Ignis relay the events there to me."

Kai Xin took out a small plastic bag from his pocket and placed all the shards of glass there.

"It seems to me like you are much more loyal to your organization leader, which in this case, is the ruthless Ignis Silva, rather than to your duty as a Slayer."

Zachary told the man as it is in a harsh manner.

"Yes, I suppose that perfectly encapsulates it, I believe." He stood up and watched the Sun slowly ascend to the sky up above. "Frankly, I do not see anything wrong with that."

Zachary was silent.

"After what happened to Luken Regalia's sister and the other Six Blades members, I was recruited by Luken and Gavin."

Zachary's eyes were widened.

Kai laughed softly.

"Judging from your reaction, I am thinking they did not tell you, right? It is not like it matters right now, anyway."

He said.

"Wait, so how did you end up choosing the Inferno Garden over the Six Blades? Was Ignis Silva really that emphatic of a leader that a lazy simpleton such as yourself ended up choosing him over Luken?"

This time, Kai did not bother holding back his laughter.

He laughed, but not in an insulting manner. It was of pure enjoyment and amusement.

"No, it is nothing like that. Although I do admit there are several qualities that Luken does not possess which Ignis does. But that can be said the other way as well. Ignis also has many factors absent from him which are abundant in Luken Regalia's arsenal."

Kai responded back.

"So, which is it?"

Gavin was eager to know.

"It was honestly a really tough decision to make for me. Both of them were in my batch. Ignis, Luken, Gavin, and I were in the same rookie class. So, I had a dilemma in my hands."

Zachary was very captivated by Kai Xin's story.

To know more about his superiors and those that were stronger than him and their history were things that he enjoyed.

"Then what happened next?"

"Luken called me up and sent me a message via his carrier pigeon one time. I was wasted in a bar, I had just drunk a ton more than I could handle that night before. I opened the message and he wanted to meet me for lunch. I went ahead and met him, obviously. He invited me a place on the Six Blades, honestly, I was touched."

"Why didn't you accept it, then?"

"Luken gave me a day to think about it. I was chilling for a bit, I sat down under a large ass oak tree somewhere near the Grand Castle. That was when I saw Ignis. And he saw me as well, I knew the guy. I knew what his gaze meant. So, I tried to look away and cover my face, attempting to be asleep and stuff. He approached me instantly and we talked for a bit. I was honestly a bit relieved as he stood up, he didn't ask me to join his organization, what a relief, I thought to myself. Ignis was walking back towards wherever he was going that day, he looked back at me and offered me a place in the Inferno Garden at the last possible second."

Kai caught up to his breath and sighed.

"So I did the most practical thing there was. Heads for the Six Blades and tails for the Inferno Garden."

Zachary's jaw dropped.

"Y-You flipped a fucking coin?!"